'Twenty metres from the shore': Crowds gather as orcas steal the show in Hawke's Bay

Orcas were spotted out by Perfume Point on Thursday. Photo / Paul Taylor

Crowds of mesmerised onlookers have been treated to a whale of a show in Napier as a pod of orcas frolicked and fed along the shoreline.

Huw Taylor and his daughters Georgia, 11, and Samantha, 9, were part of the dozens of people down along the coast in Ahuriri watching the whales early on Thursday afternoon.

"It was truly amazing to see," Taylor said.

"We saw some pictures on social media and being the school holidays I grabbed the kids and we rushed down here to have a look."

The Orcas put on a show for the onlooking crowd as people hung around for over an hour to watch. Photo / Paul Taylor

He said they ended up following the two orcas for more than an hour watching them make their along the front of West Quay and up and around Perfume Point.

"The kids loved it just watching the whales slowly swim along mucking around and blowing water at each other," he said.

Taylor said that although there were two hanging close to the shoreline there was another four that were out at the mouth of the port further in the bay.

Dozens of people gathered along the beach out front of Harding Rd to watch the Orcas. Photo / Paul Taylor

"The ones along the shoreline felt so close, when we were at Perfume Point we couldn't have been more than 20 metres away," Taylor said.

Dr Ingrid Visser, with the Orca Research Trust said that New Zealand's orca specialise in feeding on elasmobranch (sharks, rays and skates) and those who visit the Hawke's Bay shorelines are typically hunting for rays.

The group of approximately two orca and another possible four spotted further off the coast had last been sighted off Northland, where they frequented both the west and east coast harbours, also in the search for rays.

Visser's research showed that the group was comprised of a matriarch, presumed to be the mother or grandmother of at least three of the orcas.

"One, an adult male, is known as Funky Monkey, due to the distortion of his dorsal fin, the other is known as Pickle, who is a female born in September 2010 and who has the top of her dorsal fin missing, presumed to be from a shark bite," Visser said.

The youngest member of the group is less than two years old but Visser has not been able to confirm if it is a male or a female.

She stressed that people out boating should remember the law; no closer than 50 metres and no faster than five knots around the orca.

"Napier Harbour was the site of a horrific boat-strike where an orca was badly injured due to a skipper travelling too fast around the animals," Visser said.

She also urges people to call the 0800 SEE ORCA (0800 733 6722) number so that their whereabouts could be monitored and research conducted.