Every year >100 killer whales accumulate on the continental slope near Bremer Bay in the western Great Australian Bight from late austral spring to early autumn (January–April), which can be regarded as a natural wonder. For unknown reasons, the whales tend to feed in the same confined region over a seafloor plateau near the head of the Hood Canyon, where the total water depth is ∼800–1000 m. The hypothesis behind this work is that the killer-whale aggregation is the signature of a localized marine food web originating from flow-induced upwelling and concentration of benthic particulate organic matter (POM). To test this hypothesis a hydrodynamic model is applied to analyse the pathways of virtual suspended particles released near the seafloor in three large submarine canyons that exist in the region. Here we show that, due to its shape and positioning on the continental slope, the Hood Canyon operates to funnel significantly more benthic particles onto the ambient continental slope than the adjacent Bremer Canyon and the Whale Canyon. Moreover, findings suggest that smaller-scale topographic undulations within the Hood Canyon are the cause of this slope upwelling of POM. This transport mechanism of POM may explain the ecological uniqueness of the region.

从南方春季到秋天初秋（1月至4月），每年在大澳大利亚湾西部不来梅湾附近的大陆斜坡上每年都会积聚100多条虎鲸，这可被视为自然奇观。由于未知原因，鲸鱼倾向于在胡德峡谷顶部附近的海底高原上的同一密闭区域觅食，那里的总水深约为800-1000 m。这项工作背后的假设是，杀人鲸的聚集是本地海洋食物网的标志，该海洋网起源于流量引起的上升流和底栖颗粒有机物（POM）的浓度。为了检验该假设，应用了流体力学模型来分析该区域中存在的三个大型海底峡谷中海底附近释放的虚拟悬浮颗粒的路径。在这里，我们表明 由于其形状和在大陆斜坡上的位置，胡德峡谷的作用是将比邻近的不来梅峡谷和鲸鱼峡谷更多的底栖颗粒汇聚到周围的大陆斜坡上。此外，研究结果表明，胡德峡谷内较小规模的地形起伏是造成POM坡度上升的原因。POM的这种运输机制可以解释该地区的生态独特性。