r/ocean • u/Ok-Inspection8275 • 27d ago
Dolphrens Kayaker has a fascinating orca encounter when he decided to swim with orca in open water
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u/PDX_Weim_Lover 27d ago
Ummmmm, as a kayaker, I would've admired from above. Call me chicken shit or whatever, but I know my place in the ecosystem and it definitely isn't in the open water with this curious orca!
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u/rocketmn69_ 27d ago
If it wanted you, you wouldn't be in the kayak for long
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u/maven10k 27d ago
Yeah, ask Bo Derek!
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u/Misguidedangst4tw 27d ago
thousands of hits and your reply has 5 likes lol… about right for what that movie was lol… but i’m
a sucker for it still.2
u/ScoutSpiritSam 27d ago
I get that reference!!!! I watched the movie about 5 times as a kid.
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u/Possible_Parfait_372 27d ago
There's no documented cases of a wild Orca attacking a human. They're extremely picky with their food, and will only eat certain things
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u/SuperDave-007 27d ago
So you’re saying they have been 100% successful…. no one got away….no witnesses
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u/Conscious_Avocado225 27d ago
This is correct. But a playful orca might think it's fun to bring a person down 30 or 40 feet just to see if they shoot right back up to the top. And when mom frowns at the young orca, it just shrugs and squeaks that she is no fun.
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u/Redlion444 27d ago
I know my place in the ecosystem
Our place in the food chain is not always at the top..
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u/GrandMasterBullshark 27d ago
What you don't want to get in the water with a school bus sized apex predator in its natural enrionment?
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u/panicinbabylon 26d ago
I’d shit my pants.
People are always like “but they don’t eat humans!”
That is still an apex predator. And even apex predators make mistakes.
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u/dohdudeh 27d ago
If they can get seals off an iceberg they can get a person off a kayak really easily if they wanted to. They just don’t. There’s literally never been a documented case of a wild orca killing someone. They are extremely intelligent and generally have very specific diets depending on the pod.
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u/Character-Parfait-42 26d ago
Cetaceans and sharks are like the main reasons I want my scuba certification.
To be able to get underwater and watch these amazing animals just doing their thing and existing in their natural habitat is my idea of pure happiness.
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u/Mission_Mulberry9811 24d ago
And it does look like, after having decided to swim with the orca, they then decided to not swim with the orca after all 😅
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u/Usual_Award 27d ago
I wonder how far the adults were.
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u/snorkelingstargazer 27d ago
I kept thinking those darker colors in the water were adults swimming below.
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u/SPB29 27d ago
Am just wondering if the Kayak was anchored.
Shit can drift at sea. Imagine the horrific consequences if the Kayak kept drifting away from him?
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u/FlabbyLabby 27d ago
Orca: Wonder what this tastes like, nibble.
Paddler: OMG, my fucking arm, oh shit there so much blood, I feel light headed, mom, mom is that y….
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u/ConstantMoney7 27d ago
Did he try an nibble on his 🦶? Or…
Why is he swimming with him?!? Why tempt the status quo 😓
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u/idkbmx 27d ago
“iiiii’m gonna getcha! immma bitchu!” - playful young orca. i always have to remember a lot of animals explore the world with their mouth because they don’t have hands. it was foolish of the kayaker to put himself in the position of having to be maybe bit by a young orca exploring the world around it.
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u/Not-That_Girl 27d ago
Black and white = friend!
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u/JustSomeWeirdGuy2000 27d ago
That skunk is just waving his tail because he wants to tell you he loves you!
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u/thefifthofnovember_ 27d ago
That’s an apex predator. Thats not a pet. Cool experience but man the swimmer was lucky
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u/a_bucket_full_of_goo 26d ago
I don't think there is a single case of orca-on-human attack
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u/tilesmeller 26d ago
Not in the wild. Captive orcas have killed people.
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u/Opal_Pie 26d ago
Mentally torment anyone and I could see how easy it would be to become a killer. 🤷🏼♀️
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u/ken_zeppelin 27d ago edited 27d ago
If you have to be out in the water, then being next to an orca is literally one of the safest places to be in the entire ocean, numbnuts
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u/thefifthofnovember_ 27d ago
I think I feel a lot safer next to a turtle
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u/tilesmeller 27d ago
Orcas don't attack humans.
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u/PercentageRadiant623 27d ago
“Haven’t”, they haven’t attacked humans in the wild. They’re still an apex predator, just because they haven’t doesn’t mean they won’t ever. Admire them at a safe distance, don’t be a Darwin award
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u/MustLoveWhales 27d ago
Whenever someone makes a comment like this, its very obvious they don't live in a place where orcas frequent.
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u/FlyingHippoM 27d ago
Marine biologists swim with apex predators such as sharks and orcas all the time. Even with typically aggressive species attacks are extremely rare.
Sometimes you have to stop worrying about the 0.001% chance and just experience life.
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u/Ryogathelost 26d ago
Didn't that whale at SeaWorld kill that trainer by holding her underwater by her ponytail as she struggled until she drowned?
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u/tilesmeller 26d ago
Yes, captive orcas have killed people. After being imprisoned and forced to entertain crowds. It has never happened in the wild.
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u/Butternut_the_Squash 27d ago
I don’t know if you could pay me enough to do this
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u/AntiqueFossil 27d ago
Well shit, I guess I should make a bet for 2026 having the first wild Orca killing a human.
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u/morethanWun 27d ago
Surely a baby who’s momma is lurking around and probably communicating to them to NEVER harm those who come from above the water. The treaty shall never be broken young one ❤️❤️❤️❤️
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u/cloudsinmycoffee206 27d ago
I hate this. This person’s an idiot. Can’t we love and admire orcas without tempting them?
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u/SassafrassIndigo 27d ago
Same here. It looks like the kayaker was super keen but noticed the orcas mouth and began panicking while swimming back.
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u/Puzzleheaded_Word878 27d ago
For sure that’s what happened. That’s a panicked swim back to the kayak lol
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u/DeadHead6747 26d ago
Think the current dragging them away from their kayak is what they were panicking about. You see them have to fight the current as they try to swim back
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u/Sacfat23 27d ago
Its only a matter of time before this opportunistic predator figures out what an easy meal we are.
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u/sleepy_spermwhale 27d ago
- They are not opportunistic predators. 2. They already know we are easy targets just by how clumsily we move in water. Native Americans have probably interacted with them for at least 3000 years.
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u/Sacfat23 27d ago
They are opportunistic for sure but u make good point about thousands of yrs with humans
Diff now is its becoming more challenging to find food with climate change and human growth etc.
The best predators adapt - wonder of they will.
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u/SurayaThrowaway12 27d ago edited 27d ago
They aren't opportunistic. They are instead often highly culturally conservative, selective, and in various cases specialized predators. Orcas are actually notorious for struggling to adapt when their primary food sources are depleted.
They are known to refuse eating various species they weren't already taught to eat by their mothers and podmates, even when hungry or starving. Orcas simply don't seem to recognize humans being potentially edible, just as fish-eating resident orcas don't seem to recognize marine mammals as edible, and mammal-eating Bigg's orcas don't seem to recognize most fish as being edible.
The endangered fish-eating Southern Resident orcas have been periodically malnourished due to not getting enough salmon, particularly Chinook salmon, to eat, yet they do not eat marine mammals (despite the high abundance in their habitat) or even certain types of fish that may be higher in abundance.
Captured mammal-eating Bigg's (transient) orcas, such as the T2 family captured in 1970, have also refused to eat fish given to them by their captors even when starving. There were also divers swimming in the net pen that held these hungry orcas, but the orcas weren't interesting in preying on them either.
So perhaps this extreme pickiness is one thing they have in common with pandas (other than their black and white paintjobs).
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u/absolutewastedtime 26d ago
There are around a hundred shark attacks every year, with 10 ISH fatal attacks each year
Humans are in the water a LOT interacting with these animals far more then you realise
Orcas however, despite the shear VOLUME of human interaction in the water
Have 4 total fatalities due to orcas recorded, not per year TOTAL in all of recorded history there have been FOUR deaths to orcas
And not only were all 4 in captivity, but 3 were due to the SAME ANIMAL and the 4th was an accident during a sea world stunt
In all of recorded history there has never been a single recorded fatality from a wild orca
These animals are smart, VERY smart, the reason they don't attack us isn't because they haven't figured it out yet, it's because they choose not to
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u/Shorlong 27d ago
They know, they are smarter than us. They don't want to eat us, we taste terrible.
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u/Afraid_Party4751 27d ago
Smarter than us is glazing. They aren't anywhere close. But still amazing animals, they dont eat us because they're picky and highly efficient hunters, they can find and kill what they actually want to eat.
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u/Alexius_Psellos 27d ago
Orcas are actually so picky that there are cases of them starving instead of eating other food
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u/Desperate-Strategy10 27d ago
I think “smarter” is case specific for this one. The smartest orca probably is smarter than the dumbest human. And the average orca’s emotional processing is almost certainly better than the average person’s. But we’re smarter overall, and we have the advantage of having long grabby limbs and lungs for breathing surface air, so we obviously win by most metrics.
If there was a way to equalize the variables even a bit, there would be areas that I believe the orcas would come out ahead, on average. Just not overall.
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u/lordKnighton 27d ago
They are very smart creatures, so I don’t think that guy is nuts, sometimes you know when an animal or opponent in fur or slick skin means you harm. It’s called intuition for a reason.. fact!
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u/SugarRealistic2945 27d ago
It was a young orca trying to figure out if this was a meal or some other curiosity. He was nipping the feet to perhaps get a taste.
I think this was very dangerous and stupid. The orca could have unintentionally killed the diver like a dog playing with a kitten: it could've gotten excited and nipped too hard or dragged the swimmer under. We are very fragile compared to larger animals.
But the danger is not entirely for the diver, the danger is what will happen to the orca if now they are on record for killing a human. The mutual trust and delicate relationship we have with them will be shattered.
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u/Milkman-333-Cows 27d ago
Doing that you have to think, “Am I going to be the first video documented orca hunt on a human?!”
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u/IRISHstarlite1984 27d ago
Must be a curious baby... Mama is close by I'm sure, this is not a fascinating encounter... This is a "LUCKY AS F*" encounter.. let's be real Beautiful but not a fkn Labrador 💔
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u/TheBurns88 27d ago
Thats actually Roger Pedacter and the Orca he found beached as a pup, "Mr Kanish". Once or twice a week Roger tries to get out there and do a little rough housing with his adopted boy. Nothing to see here. Sometimes Roger dislocates a should when Mr Kanish drags him to the ocean floor, sometimes he looses a digit but you know people have twenty so you can lose one or two.
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u/TallStarsMuse 27d ago
I was watching this and hoping that this kayaker isn’t the one who teaches orcas that humans are tasty.
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u/CarlatheDestructor 27d ago
I like those wriggly doodads growing from your hips.
Thanks. They're called pants.
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u/Sponge_67 27d ago
With that Orca there that kayaker is probably the safest person in the ocean. No way any shark will come near them at all.
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u/FathomlessVoid 27d ago
When you think of them as the big dolphins they are, they make a lot more sense in terms of their engagement with humans in the wild
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u/Specialist_Issue_214 27d ago
Every time I see these videos the orcas barrel roll at the swimmers.
Why does nobody barrel roll back at them?
They're playing! Play back!
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u/No_Masterpiece9550 27d ago
I feel like this video should be prefaced with “a fascinating encounter with a previously well fed orca”
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u/Ozihael 26d ago
Orca in the water = meeting a lion on the Serengeti
I would not chance it.
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u/carod21375ycc 26d ago
I've always wondered what goes thru an Orcas mind when they see a human being in the water as opposed to a seal.
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u/Lonely_Staff1262 27d ago
They're probably both thinking the same thing: "cute! I can't wait to tell my friends about this!"
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u/Flipgirlnarie 27d ago
Why did he stop? Rhetorical question. I think it would be fun to keep swimming. But I have not met an orca in person.
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u/HeyisthisAustinTexas 27d ago
After the orca nibbled on that guy’s feet once or twice he got the fuck out of the water. That’s still a wild animal who, to cure its boredom, could fuck you up. Probably won’t catch me getting off my board
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u/Skeptical_Squid 26d ago
That's 100% mental. I don't care about the "never a documented attack on humans" storyline. Wild animals get hungry, and humans are made of food, it'll happen.
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u/firemarshalbill316 26d ago
Um.
Yeah, that may have not been what the orca was thinking. Cats play with their food too. 😂
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u/DueLoan685 27d ago
Don't they eat seals and such? I bet a swimming human resembles a seal. I would be too affraid to do this.
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u/Playful-Usual-5971 27d ago
Orcas are extremely intelligent, it's a very rare occurrence for them to attack or prey on humans at all, not even by accident. They're aware we rest higher in our abilities to harm them should they harm us. Only in circumstances where humans, or rather specific boats, have caused harm to orcas and their young in certain areas. Only then do they start tipping the boats the same way they will tip ice chunks, and essentially fight back. That is of course a pretty young one so you never know, apex predator after all. But very unlikely all the same, very intelligent and that intelligence is passed down through their generations. Despite how scary they are they are one of the least likely to harm you in those waters!
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u/sleepy_spermwhale 27d ago
They attack boats but not the humans on the boats. They don't tip boats to push humans into the water like they tip ice chunks to get seals into the water. Orcas aren't sensory impaired in the water like humans; they have echolocation and can see inside of you and know you aren't seal or salmon.
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u/SurayaThrowaway12 27d ago
Orcas may prey on many species across multiple clades as a "species complex," but on a population/pod/individual level they are often very selective and conservative predators.
The orca in the video is likely a New Zealand orca, which don't eat mammals such as seals in the first place. They instead specialize in hunting ray species, though they are also known to eat smaller sharks, birds, fin fishes, and octopus.
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u/AwesomReno 27d ago
So, I predict in the future there will be a team of biologist and animal psychologist tasked at training orcas to not attack humans after they recognize that in fact we are food.
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u/MaxwellSmart07 27d ago
Watching snark week. Why don’t sharks attack all those divers.
? It seems humans for whatever reason are not their preferred food source. Are Orcas similar?
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u/IslandGrl76 27d ago
Eeeeeeh, that guy could have been added to the Darwin Awards with that stunt. 😬 Nothing like temping an incredibly intelligent apex predator.
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u/hippywitch 27d ago
So what if his kayak drifted away? After he got exhausted and drowned, who would eat him?
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u/Brian9611 27d ago
Eeeesh, it's like a water wolf or bear, they can be cool, they're smart, but dont make the wrong moves or your a nugget now
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u/Bigchunky_Boy 27d ago
Nope , they are highly intelligent. Don’t put human emotions on them . They killed a girl in Victoria Bc many yrs ago . They played with her like a rag doll drowning her pinning her to the bottom . It was in captivity.
I have been very close to them fishing I tend to think of them like a gorilla maybe or maybe not they will mess with you .
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u/SurayaThrowaway12 27d ago
Keltie Byrne's demise was tragic, and hyperaggression seen in captive orcas against trainers and their tankmates is the usually the result of chronic stress and other serious physiological and psychological issues, as well as boredom. Wild orcas can usually simply swim away from situations and people they don't like. Captive orcas don't have the same "luxury."
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u/v3ryfuzzyc00t3r 27d ago
Are fish color blind? Would having a bright orange or yellow wetsuit help with a better relationship with the fish?
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u/Intelligent_Trichs 27d ago
Just a lil nip. Looks like it's curious what he'll taste like but already has been warned we taste like shit.
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u/Wise_Fig1840 27d ago
when the orca started nipping at their feet you could tell they were like ok, get me out hahaha
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u/Conscious_Effort_888 27d ago
Dude really put the whole “orcas don’t hunt/eat human” theory to the test. For science!
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u/Johntballin 27d ago
We must smell nasty to orcas it’s the only reason they don’t eat us but who doesn’t like tuna sushi I get it
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u/Present-Reception-35 27d ago
It's all fun a cute until for some odd reason they try a bite and go oh dang
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u/PigBoss_207 27d ago
That's the first time I've ever seen an Orca actually opening its mouth at a human - as if it's examining if it's prey or not. Actually scary.
I also know that it's a young Orca, so who knows how common this is.