The orcas were only a couple of kilometres off Surf Beach and included one male, four females and a calf.

The male kept his distance but some of others and the calf came right up to the charter boat Dreamtime skippered by Nick Ingersole of Narooma Charters.

His father and fellow skipper Norm Ingersole said killer whales were regularly spotted off Narooma during the southerly humpback migration, when the whales were heading back down to Antarctic waters with their calves.

Orcas had also been sighted in recent weeks further down the coast at Eden.

Spotting killer whales was always a treat but it also made finding the humpbacks harder that same day as the whales seemed to know about these hunting packs and seemed to be scarce on the days when the orcas were around, he said.

It was currently the peak of the whale season, which will continue until mid-November when typically it ended suddenly.

Narooma and Bermagui charter boats have been spotting good numbers of humpback whales but there have also been sightings daily from the shore.

There were local Facebook postings of whales were sighted on Monday morning off Narooma’s Surf Beach as well as at Bermagui in the evening.

Find out more about whale watching, regulation and sightings at www.wildaboutwhales.com.au

The website and app also list recent sightings such as southern right whale mother and calf spotted off Bermagui on September 23.