SNORKELING WITH ORCAS IN NORWAY

let's enter more the way to interact with orcas in this presentation called snorkeling with orcas in Norway but first of all I want to clear points is the way snorkeling on orcas no Kalinga dolphin snorkeling disturbance for animals you see in this video two large gray whales swimming and in front of the gray whales there are dolphins the question is do you think that the dolphins are disturbing the gray whale swimming the second question is do you think that the big whales they are disturbing the Dolphins and of course no they don't disturb each other this is simply interspaced interaction that happens all the time in the nature so if this dolphin is not a disturbance for this big world how could I be a disturbance simply I don't have this power I don't swim fast enough this marine mammals the citizens if they don't want to interact with a swimmer they just have to move away in two seconds it will be hardly matters away one person or two a free person swimming with marine mammals are not disturbances what can be a disturbance is the boat that drive you in close encounter it can be even a danger even threat to this animals because of the propeller but when we are in the water we snorkeler we free divers we cannot be a disturbance we don't have this power when we encounter orcas who we first observe them and basically the orcas we find they can have four main day activities the first one is traveling and when they are traveling we can go in a UC approach we can use my technique we can find orcas when they are feeding when they are feeding we have to come close very slowly with the boat but basically but they don't care about the divers they'll just focus on the food when they are playing we can come close but it's a little bit different do you have to be even more careful and stay at the limit of the social zone and then wait what happens when they are sleeping we don't interact with orcas we keep some distance and we wait until them they wake up and they look for food when they are traveling the orcas may be in the food but most of the time is the full pot we can find them traveling with only a serpent but part of the pod can be between five and ten individuals the second part of the pod with the other orcas are swimming maybe 500 meters away 1k meters away they are not far there are still in connection we cannot see them they can swim in a tight pod very close to each others or they can split the pod into pod and swim submittals away from each other when they are seeking for prey they have this organization in a line and they come to the surface to breathe all in the same time and they go down and dive all together sometimes and more and more we have this situation in Norway the swim spread out one here and there [Music] in Norway we have a very typical organization with group swimming and the last one is always adult male following the group in the last position and we call this guy the pusher when you try to come close to orcas with the boat we try to find a position in a free fourth part of the Orca pod swimming and the work of the boat driver will be to come in the same level at the limit of the social zone we call that the synchronization point from here we can have two behavior of the orcas the first one if the orcas not want to interact they can be let's say not interested or they can be busy to look for food we're gonna see one thing very typical the pusher the last big male will come a little bit closer to the boat pretending he wants to interact but actually when they will be under water it will push the rest of the pod away from the boat direction we call that opening the Orca bodies opening is opening the angle so is going a little bit away from the boat direction because we have used a soft approach we had those soft avoidance if we use a hard approach if for example we go straight to the to the orchids it's gonna be another kind of avoidance we call that hard avoidance they will simply break the line with angle they will change a brutally direction they will dive all together and they will disappear and we will not see them again in a day we just have to find another pod this is a major disturbance when they are approached very directly and very fast with the boat this is why we are using the soft approach to respect them and to propose interaction they can accept or not sometimes the approach leads to soft encounter for that the orcas they tolerate the boat in the same level which is a good sign and the work of the boat driver will be to take over keeping the line like this and we try to reach what we call the drop point which is 3/4 in front of the swimming of orcas and then it's time for all divers to get ready get ready means be fast and efficient not nervous putting your mask snorkel fins camera unloaded everything is ready waiting for the moment when the boat driver will say you go if you need helps at that moment you have to ask the person close to you which is in the best place to help you to put the mask a bit better or the hood on the top of the mask because you are a couple of seconds away before the boat driver will tell you go a clear and distinct go and you have to react immediately to the boat drivers comment but try to enter the water as softly as you can then you are in the water waiting for the orcas will you rush in the Orca direction the answer is no don't do that it's hard to pass ensure the Orca will change direction dive and we can forget the spot for the day this is example of a bad angle and also the behavior with the person swimming as fast as he can to gain some matters take the picture of this big male focus on the food it's not a big disturbance but every time you do that you see the orcas even if he pretends he doesn't care about you he will take some distance swim away from you and when you think you are gaining one matter actually you are losing 2 or 3 or 4 meters because he's faster than you so there is no point to do that and even the second was even faster and and his Orca was kept between two swimmers like this this is situation we should avoid this is an example of underwater interaction with Orca pod traveling I have a pole of a GoPro I can feel myself it was a pretty difficult but I could have a good footage and you can see that in this video I'm a little bit late and I know that so instead of rushing in the Orca direction I open my path a little bit and immediately one Orca has left the the swimming direction and gave me a level two interaction another solution is staying still this is very good because the orca pod will follow the direction they have before you go in the water you will see them passing in front of you mainly for a level-one interaction I'm filming in the situation and I know I feel when I'm too late and when there is no point to swim in the Orca direction so I let my buoyancy bring me back to the surface and by doing that I give a signal my body send a signal give a message to the Orca and most of the time they stay around if the divers are in the same behavior such as in this video we can be visited by the same orcas once twice or maybe more because all the divers are staying still they are visited by the same orcas this is a very very good example of what you can get when you stay still with orcas visiting you the second solution could be swimming in the same direction for instance you are here the Orca pod is swimming in this direction is it okay to swim in front of the Orca pond isn't it dangerous in front of the top predator to swim like if you are escaping now it's not bad even better than staying still for me this is the best way to see orcas taking over and come back and the Orca will interact with you and depending on the the behavior a bit depending on your body language if you show the belly if you set aside if you show the back when you are swimming you you send different signals and all of this is my experience of the body language and how to reproduce some element of the body language in order to start to communicate with the body language with orcas and it works and sometimes the feeling and the encounter is even stronger such as in this situation with a large female and you can observe the body language of this female which is turning the body and looking in in one direction like this and you see the pectoral fin which is also a sign when the pectoral fins are down like this and then I can appear and she was just by this body language inviting me for a swim and that with Jean and it was a really great feeling there is another technique I don't recommend and I never used this technique with in a normal situation but with the same Orcas have been interacting in the previous video which was very friendly totally trustful I used the technique of the free space and it means that instead of swimming in parallel line and keeping the line with the Orca I swim in the direction where she's coming from by doing this it's a little bit cheating because she will not see me anymore and the first reflex is that this akka will turn in order to check me by eyes so she will come in my direction by doing this the pectoral fin were normally in relaxed position will be like this it's not stress is just extreme attention because she wanted to spot me again and when she see me again and she can interact with me then you see the pectoral fin going down which is a sign of okay here is the man I can interact this is a kind of dance it's a kind of game this has to be used only with really friendly or cast when the Orca pod is feeding there is a technique we use we try to be in front of the wind we put the engine in neutral and we drift until the boat is in the center of action then we put people soft in the water and we stay basically at the surface and we can enjoy the orcas surrounding the bait ball and also the orcas taste slapping I asked my divers to swim away from the bait ball and to be couple of metres at the edge outside of the bait bolt because we have a better view a global view of the action it will take sometimes between 4050 minutes or maybe 1 hours to the Orca to eat the label of herrings and I have experienced many many times the orca orcas big males they come very close to us to pick up a herring and I've seen inside the eyes of the Orca male and you can see where is looking and you will never look at you it will always be focused on the herring is targeting when the arkhipov displaying the technique is to say outside the social zone and to swim just at the limit of the social zone way and back up and down like this what happens sometimes is when the Orca they opened the game to other species they will swim with you at the edge of the social zone and they will swim this way they will be faster they will turn back you keep swimming in the parallel line and away and down maybe two three four five ten times like this and what can happen sometimes and I've tried it is when the orcas are taking over I turn and they do the same they turn to follow you meaning that they let you lead the game and this is the most emotional powerful interaction feeling you can get with orcas when you have the feeling to be a part of the group sometimes they enter in a level free interaction they speak with you the feeling you have in the level free interaction with the social game of the orcas has no equivalent so this is the best way to have the level free encounter and the best encounter ever with all cast basically we don't interact with orcas while they are sleeping with respect because they want to rest they need to rest and so we stay quite close in the pubic zone and we let the boat drifting but with the engine off to be more silent and we calculate the drift of the boat to keep the boat outside the social zone and we are watching like this until the orcas they are moving again and then we can go in the UC technique the first one we have been speaking with I have been contacted a couple of years ago by an organization called Aussie news Akamai yachts here is the video they sent to me this guy had never been trained in the UC and you can see how he's swimming in a parallel line to the Orca pool it's a great encounter he did exactly what has to be done and they accepted him they even slowed down because they wanted to keep him inside the pod they had opened the social structure to this man and I have to say one thing to this video and to this guy because he got amazing encounter and the gift he got from orcas was just remarkable if you are swimming at the surface and you see the orcas swimming below you even sometimes they are swimming upside down and they look at you like this but if they stay deep don't dive because if you do so they will do so it means they don't want to interact with you if you try to free dive we're gonna lose the putt for the day we have to wait until the Orca put breathe close to the place you're swimming this is the moment you can free dive this is the sign they are okay to interact with you underwater and it happens maybe 20% of the time [Music] all your experience all your footage all your pictures of interaction are helpful you can contribute and become contributors of our Facebook page called Jussi oksanen Tia you can ask for being a UC ambassador in it's gonna be a great honor for us to include you in our staff of ambassadors if you organize some events seminars workshop works about the Orca behavior or also the how to come close with orcas we're going to be really happy to take part of it or any other suggestion you may have thank you for your attention everyone thank you very much see you the next presentation bye bye [Music]

Channel: Pierre ROBERT de LATOUR

Views: 672,676

Keywords: orca, orque, whales

Id: U3u1VkTbWtw

Length: 15min 20sec (920 seconds)

Published: Sat Jan 04 2020