Orca Encounter

[Graham Ritchie]

This was captured here in the South Island when some kids encountered an "Orca" that appeared to be chasing a stingray for lunch .

[Ed Gordon]

Here is Washington state, USA, we call them "killer whales" rather than "orcas". We have resident killer whales in Puget Sound (aka, Salish Sea). The movie "Namu, the Killer Whale" was filmed here back in the '60's. Unfortunately their numbers have be in decline since then...

Namu (unknown – July 9, 1966) was a male captive killer whale. He was the first healthy killer whale to be captured and was the first to perform with a human in the water.[1] He was the subject of much media attention, including a "starring" role in the 1966 film Namu, the Killer Whale.

In June 1965, William Lechkobit discovered a 22-foot (6.7m) male killer whale in his floating salmon net that had drifted close to shore near Namu, British Columbia. The whale was sold for $8,000 to Edward "Ted" Griffin, owner of the Seattle Marine Aquarium;[2][3] it ultimately cost Griffin much more to transport Namu 450 miles (720 km) south to Seattle.

While in captivity, Namu could eat 400 pounds of salmon a day.[4] Namu was a popular attraction at the Seattle Marine Aquarium, and Griffin soon captured a female killer whale to be a companion for Namu. The female, named Shamu, was quickly leased and eventually sold to SeaWorld in San Diego. Namu survived just over one year in captivity and died on July 9, 1966.[5]

It was later discovered through preserved recordings of his calls that Namu was from C1 Pod,[6] one of the best known Northern Resident pods. He was thus given the alphanumeric code C11. It is suspected that the matriarch, C5, who died in 1995, was his mother.[7] As of February 2010, Namu's presumed sister Koeye (C10) is still alive.

The United Artists film Namu, the Killer Whale (a.k.a. Namu, My Best Friend) was released in 1966 and 'starred' Namu in a fictional story set in the San Juan Islands.[8] The name "Namu" was also later used as a show-name for different killer whales in SeaWorld shows.

Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Namu_%28killer_whale%29

More about the movie: Namu the Killer Whale premieres at Orpheum Theatre in Seattle on August 1, 1966.

[Steve Klare]

We went on a Whale Watch out of Boston about 7 years ago and off in the distance, there was a whale that kept sticking his head up out of the water. The captain thought it might be in distress so he called it in. NOAA asked him to get closer and investigate, so this entire boatload of a couple of hundred summer tourists motored over to take a look.

He was a humpback (-don't ask me how they knew the "he" part!) and the diagnosis of his ailment was "young". He was basically teenager-equivalent and just having a goofy good time checking out the World on a sunny August day! The problem is suddenly we made his World a lot more interesting and he kept swimming around our boat checking us out!

The thing is that since he was so close, we couldn't turn the propellers without risking injuring him, so we were basically marrooned until he got bored and swam away. (Being a teenager, this didn't take that long!)

-Who would have imagined a Whale Watch could go both ways!

.

(Suffice it to say, this will probably remain the best whale watch we will ever go on!)

[Graham Ritchie]

Brilliant Ed and Steve, this amazing Drone footage was taken here in NZ at the time a lady was out for her swim a couple of years ago, there is a shorter version but I think this longer one is better.

Its well worth a watch, its great to see them swimming in there natural surroundings