Orca Pod Overturns Fishing Boat

Saturday, August 14, 2004
NEW ZEALAND - A fishing trip in the Kaipara Harbour has turned into a terrifying ordeal for a Northland couple.

A pod of orca whales hunting school fish came so close to their four metre boat that one of them tipped it over, throwing them into the sea.

The man and woman spent a short, but frightening time in the water before being rescued.

People living at Pahi, at the northern end of the harbour spotted two heads bobbing in the water. They alerted the North Kaipara Coastguard which rescued the pair.

Coastguard president Ralph Williams says they are very cold but unharmed.

He says several other boats - some with children on board - were going to go out, but their fathers decided to stay ashore, a decision he describes as very wise.

The couple told rescuers they had gone out to retrieve a net which they had set earlier, when one of the orcas came up underneath the boat and flipped it over. The whales have now disappeared.