7 Orca Encounters That'll Brighten Your Day

7 Orca Encounters That'll Brighten Your Day. Killer whale or Orca encounter are some amazing moment for who is lucky enough to live it. You'll see 7 orca encounters in this video, a Wild Orca encounter at the Bay of Islands, a raw footage of NOAA researchers tagging orcas with cross bows (killer whales) in Antarctica, Luna, a wild orca, plays with his human friend and many more encounters.
Orcas (or killer whales) are large, powerful apex predators. In the wild, there have been NO RELIABLY VERIFIED FATAL ATTACKS ON HUMANS. In captivity, there have been several non-fatal and four fatal attacks on humans since the 1970s.

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Music:

[leecowell]

Luna was a male, not female as the narrator indicated. He was probably the friendliest Orca ever known by humans.

[highlandlove]

Can you believe we live on a planet with this much incredible life!
AMAZING!

[TAiiNE]

The story of Luna isn't a happy one. That's a young male, part of the Southern Resident Community of orcas L Pod and was known as L98 on records but given the nickname Luna. Sadly over a winter, the pod lost five members, and Luna at age 2 ended up separated finding their way into a river system. Luna however was old enough to feed himself and was monitored and in good health. Plans were made to try and guide him to his surviving pod mates and back to his mother Splash (L67) by louring him in a large floating pen that would be tugged by a boat to keep him safe and guide him along to where his family was spotted.

But then people started getting in the way. Started going out to play and pet the young orca and with Luna being a youngster of 2 years at the time started interacting back. This made Luna stay and view boats and people as friends to approach. This is NOT good for a wild orca. It was made worse when a tribe of the area whose Chief passed claimed Luna to be the incarnation of their Chief and would get in the way and sabotage all attempts rescuers would make to reunite Luna with the remainder of their pod by going out onto the waters in small boats and lour Luna away or try to hide him in smaller coves.
Luna would end up staying 4 years in that river with many attempts made to try and return him to his pod, but people would not leave him alone. Even with laws and fines in place to try and prevent people from playing with him, it didn't stop people from still trying to play, pet, and get him to chase their boats... People wanted him to stay for the commodity of 'having an orca live there' and so they could play and interact with the 'friendly orca'.

In 2006 at 6 years old Luna was killed after being sucked into the propellers of a tug boat that he was seen swimming up to play with like he often did with smaller boats...

(Edit: Toy clarify, the tug boat was not moving, it was sitting idle with its prop moving to keep it from drifting in the river current, it was waiting to tug a larger logging vessel out once it was finished loading. These boats are not commonplace and it was the first time Luna had seen one... and well.. got too close.)

If people would have just left him alone and let the rescuers do their jobs Luna may still be alive and well back with his pod as a healthy 21-year-old bull today...

The sad thing is, the Southern Resident Community of orcas are endangered. The loss of Luna back then reduced the number of males to just two individuals... (thankfully that number had gone up) between all three pods that make up this species of orcas (there's 10 subspecies) only 73 some of them still exist as of 2022, with only two new births reported this year. For this population, every member counts.

(Edit: While I can't offer a link as youtube will auto delete comments with links. You can search up 'orca luna documentary' and find several clips and a full-on well, documentary on Luna's venture. There's even a plaque put up in his memory.)

While on the subject, do take this time to look up info on orcas! Did you know there are 10 subspecies? Each with their own diet, behaviors, ecosystems, markings, and body shapes! Luna, was a Resident Orca! Of the Southern Resident group, strictly fish eaters nomming on chinook and salmon! The Southern Resident group is made up of 3 famaly pods, J, K, and L. Luna was from L pod, with only 73 orcas across all three pods.

[seanmcclure]

I don’t care what anyone says. The risk to be close to one of these animals would be worth it. They are spectacular, amazing creatures, and I respect and love them so much.

[loaderopp]

Luna was not around Vancouver But farther up the west coast of vancouver Island, he hung around the waters off of Zeballos and Tahsis for weeks, he was very inquisitive and playful. I had an encounter with him while scuba diving off the southern tip of Center Island.

[michaeljones]

To see them in their natural environment is heart warming ❤❤❤❤. Not in sea world prison where they become depressed from being walled in.

[turndroid]

In 2019, my ex-gf and I were among the beach goers that participated in trying to save beached orcas in Argentina. I can't remember the name of the city but I think it's Mar Chernita or Mar Cheriza. We dumped sea water, we collected using buckets, on one of the orca's head to keep its skin moist and that's when we noticed a scar on the upper rear end of its right eye. It was shaped like an inverted "V" and very distinct.

In 2020, we were at Redondo Beach, CA on paddle boats when we encountered a pod of orcas. When one of them surfaced, we immediately noticed the distinctive inverted "V" scar and I can't believe we encountered the same orca from just 9 months back.

Amazingly, the orca hung around us while gently pushing our boards separately. It left for 5 minutes and returned with what appeared to be a big fish dangling over its mouth. It hung around us for good 20 minutes making all kinds of noise. Finally before re-joining the rest of its pod, it's tail scooped up some sea water and flung it towards us. I don't know what to make of the encounter but I'll remember this the rest of my life.

I was told orcas have excellent memory. So I'm thinking it remembered us. Maybe it's trying to thank us????

[aviabutler]

It makes me so happy seeing these animals wild and free, happy in the wild. Where they belong. ❤

[LaDanaWendy]

Encounter 5: I’m guessing those whales were like ‘WTF kinda seal is that?’😂😂😂😂😂

[derin]

Number 5: On first inspection that diver looks a little too much like a seal! 😂

[horrorandanime]

My mom loved orcas. They were one of her favorites. I have to admit I love them too. They are so happy, beautiful and amazing creatures

[TheWinterShadow]

In all honesty, if I see an Orca raising out of the water from nowhere, I will wet my pants. Just saying.

[WingedAngels]

It is so nice to see Orcas in their natural habitat. Dorsal fin straight and healthy, and not bent over and floppy looking like the ones in captivity.

[aili_not_ally]

This is actually not uncommon behavior for orcas. The only time they've ever killed humans was during their time in Sealand and Seaworld. There are no recorded orca attacks from out in the wild. They may be called killer whales, but they do not have any sort of taste for humans. In fact, they're nothing more than oversized, panda-bear cosplaying dolphins. They're very playful and very smart. So don't worry: if you're swimming and you see an orca, you're completely safe so long as you don't agitate it.

[marleyboy]

Just beautiful. These have always been my favorite. And would love to see them in the wild. But in a kayak? I think i would have a heart attack. That's crazy.

[johnskipper]

The intelligence shown here by a wild animal is amazing. A willing to interact with humans is great, I wonder if somewhere down the line if communication might be established. Wow the things that we both could learn. I guess though as bad as humans are at relationships it might be better if we left them alone.

[lpruitt]

Beautiful mammals I love how they move so swiftly and effortlessly.

[ReesieandLee]

They are so wonderful ❤ I lived in Hawaii for 20 years and was in complete awe of the humpbacks that come every year. I called the calves “flying pickles” because that’s exactly what they look like when ❤they are learning to beach.

I’ve swam with sharks and even a whale shark, probably the coolest moment ever! I need to be near the ocean again!

[tomod]

Eventhough there’s been no recorded attacks by orcas in the wild I’d still be pretty scared to see one while kayaking. This happened with a pod of dolphins and even that was intimidating 😆

[jhetttiernan]

As deadly and ferocious as they definitely are, they have a capacity for kindness and loving that’s positively dolphin-like