Oregon
‘Very spooked’: Oregon boat captain describes close encounter with orca
Dan Rocha, who captured video of a pod of orcas, mentioned one of many males began swimming within the path of his boat and swam proper beneath it.
PACIFIC CITY, Ore. — There have been orca sightings reported alongside the Oregon Coast over the previous week with individuals sharing pictures and movies on social media. One boat captain who captured some video of a pod of orcas earlier this week mentioned an encounter with one of many males got here just a little too shut for consolation.
Dan Rocha, a constitution boat captain out of Pacific Metropolis, mentioned he noticed 5 orcas whereas he was taking a crew fishing about 5 miles north of Cape Kiwanda off Sand Lake. A couple of minutes after taking the video, Rocha mentioned one of many male orcas began swimming within the path of his boat and swam proper beneath it.
“Three cows — a calf and a bull — they usually had been massive,” Rocha mentioned. “My boat is 23 ft lengthy and when he swam beneath the boat there was fish on each ends of the boat on the similar time. So he was massive.”
Bob Pitman, a retired Marine biologist who labored 40 years for the Nationwide Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), mentioned the orcas seen on this video are transient whales, fairly frequent off the Oregon Coast.
“In larger latitudes, killer whales grow to be prey specialists,” he mentioned. “Very often they’re fish eaters and mammal eaters. They do not work together usually.”
Pitman mentioned they often attain 25 to 30 ft.
“They’re the largest apex predator we have now most likely,” he mentioned. “There hasn’t been something like them because the dinosaurs walked the earth.”
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Rocha mentioned he thinks the orca that got here beneath his boat was about 30 ft lengthy.
“Very spooked,” Rocha mentioned of the shut encounter with the orca. “I did not like that in any respect. After which as soon as he went away, we relaxed just a little bit.”
The Newport Police Division shared a pair pictures of orcas this week in Yaquina Bay in Newport.
“Orcas do not dangle round our bay very lengthy, however they do go to a couple of occasions every year,” the division wrote on the Fb put up.
Social media teams devoted to whale watching have been posting movies, pictures and details about sightings of orcas over the previous week, from Depoe Bay to Lincoln Metropolis to Pacific Metropolis to Boiler Bay to Florence.
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Based on the Oregon Division of Fish and Wildlife (ODFW), orcas are most frequently seen off Depoe Bay and Newport however will be noticed up and down the Oregon Coast. There are normally a median of 30 orca sightings in Oregon per 12 months, in accordance with the Whale Watching Middle.
Usually, orcas solely stick round for a pair weeks round this time of 12 months. One of the best locations to identify them are from excessive vantage factors, together with the Yaquina Bay lighthouse, the Yaquina Head space, Don Davis Memorial Park in Nye Seaside, Cape Foulweather and the ocean wall at Depoe Bay.