A black-tipped blade broke through the smooth water ahead. The gently rising fin soon became orca – like a submarine breaching the surface. Unlike the submarine, the orca’s body surged forwards and down again as it slipped once more beneath the calm water. When the ocean is almost millpond-flat, any disturbance on the water is […]
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A breathtaking moment in the presence of the ocean’s greatest predator – or was it? When I talk about being in the water surrounded by killer whales, I’m often asked, “Were you scared?” or “What if they changed their mind about the menu?” I can honestly say that not only was I completely comfortable swimming […]
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There is action below as the orca dip, dive, and circle. For every orca seen on the surface, there are two or more below—herding, corralling, and reining in the herring, keeping them packed in a tight ball like some giant underwater salad bowl. It’s too late in the day to get into the water with […]
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Eighty years ago, a large whitewashed “80 EIRE” sign was cut into the rock at Malin Head on the Inishowen Peninsula, Ireland’s northernmost mainland point. This sign, along with more than 80 others around the Irish coastline, was created to warn Axis forces that they had entered neutral territory and to serve as a navigational […]
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Some encounters on the water unfold quietly, almost before you realise you’re witnessing something special. Most of our humpback whale sightings began the same way: a sudden, explosive blow, that familiar hump rising into view, and then only the drifting mist of exhaled droplets hanging in the air. As the whales travelled, this pattern repeated […]
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