Playful Orcas A Top Catch For
Fishing Boat Crew

Tuesday, December 29, 2009
NEW PLYMOUTH, NEW ZEALAND - A performance from a pod of orcas made a fishing trip memorable for three anglers off New Plymouth yesterday.

Gary Bedford, his son Tim Bedford and his son's girlfriend Isabel McAlister Bell spotted the pod of up to eight orcas approaching their boat about 3km off the city just after 8am.

They pulled anchor and drove slowly along as the orcas approached and the pod followed the trio for about an hour.

One orca, an estimated 5m long, was particularly playful and followed the boat closely, swimming behind it, diving underneath it and at one point rolling over and showing its spectators its stomach.

Ms McAlister Bell, originally from England, described the encounter as an amazing experience and completely out of the blue. "It was quite scary but pretty exciting," she said.

"They came up to the boat and played around with us."

She said she thought there were four or five orcas in the main pod, including one that looked particularly big, and two others swimming separately.

Unfortunately, the orca pod was the only fish the anglers got on to, but Ms McAlister Bell said the encounter more than made up for the poor catch.

Source: The Taranaki Daily News