Orca were spotted having a whale of a time at Oamaru Harbour yesterday.
The footage of the pair of orca was taken by Waitaki district councillor Jeremy Holding late in the afternoon.
"I was just dropping my daughter off to a rowing practice and then I just saw a big thing over by that wharf there, and I was like, ‘Oh, there's some whales’.
"And then they started coming towards me, and then all the rowing kids come out, and we had a sort of front-seat view from the rocks probably a few metres away from us."
Cr Holding said he had seen orca before, but never so close in the Oamaru Harbour.
"It was pretty special; I think everyone enjoyed it."
Orca Research Trust director Dr Ingrid Visser said the pair would have been looking for rays to hunt.
"That's very, very typical of orca coming into the harbours. New Zealand has the only population of orca that come into the harbours to hunt for rays anywhere in the world that we know of — so it's not unusual, but always exciting to see."
"Despite their name, orca are the largest of the dolphin family and they are really fascinating in terms of that each population has its own culture.
"So, they have different dialects, they have different behaviours, and the New Zealand ones are unique in the world."
Dr Visser said she was also fascinated by the way they hunted.
The Department of Conservation lists the New Zealand orca’s threat status as "nationally critical" and estimated the population to be about 200 throughout the country.
They can grow up to 9m in length, with male dorsal fins reaching higher than a metre.
Females are known to live up to 80 or 90 years. Males reach physical maturity at about 21 years and live for a maximum of 50-60 years.
