Researchers are analysing footage of a "rare sighting" of killer whales off Queensland's Fraser Coast, almost a decade after a mass stranding of the mammals.
The pod of whales was filmed by a fisherman in deep waters near K'gari-Fraser Island last week and the footage was sent to Killer Whales Australia (KWA).
"We think there's between nine and 11 individual killer whales, which is a relatively large group of killer whales for east coast Australia," KWA coordinator David Donnelly said.
"It's quite a rare sighting for the region, they tend to be in groups of sort of three to six most of the time."
Mr Donnelly said the pod was likely following the humpback whale migration along Queensland's coast, as they were known to attack and eat them.
"It would be fair to say that the animals that are off the coast of Fraser Island may well be following that migration in the opportunity to take down a calf or even a sick adult," he said.
"We have on record three sightings last week, one at Tweed Heads, and then two off Fraser Island."
Footage may link whales with stranded mammals
In 2013, a pod of killer whales became stranded on a sandbar near Fraser Island, and several of mammals died.
Mr Donnelly said a lot was learned about the animals who survived that stranding.
"There was just so much about their social interactions, how much one individual means to another and a family group," he said.
"Those animals hung around for about 10 days, in what we can only describe as possibly a mourning process.
"They just seemed to be regrouping and that's really interesting to understand that social dynamic within a group of animals."
Researchers are now reviewing the footage from last week hoping to determine whether the sighting involved any of the same whales from the stranding in 2013.
"We're hoping to unravel it," Mr Donnelly said.
"It's not out of the question that it is the same group of animals."
Experts will compare the footage with photos from 2013 to determine whether any of the whales' features, including the dorsal fins and the white patches around their eyes, are a match.
"It's really just scrutinising those photos, comparing them against the 2013 batch and letting people know as soon as we know, [if] these are survivors from that event that happened so many years ago," he said.
Mr Donnelly encouraged the public to report any sightings.
"We're always happy to hear from people are seeing killer whales, if you can provide imagery that's very, very helpful, and the location."
