One Auckland man’s Friday fishing trip took a frightening and then exciting turn after a pod of orca came too close for comfort.
Retired police officer David Laumatia was fishing on his jet ski at the Kaiaua mussel farms in the Firth of Thames at dawn on March 24, a weekly occurrence for him.
He had just got a snapper on his line when he noticed the pod, of about five or six orcas.
He was really excited watch them swim around – it’s not every day you get to see an orca that close up.
“When they made a beeline for me I had a mixture of feeling elated and scared,” Laumatia said.
“They could easily have tipped me out of my jet ski if they bumped into me.
“My heart rate went up pretty quickly.”
Laumatia said the pod spent about an hour diving and surfacing around him, thinking they were perhaps hunting for their next feed, which he hoped was a stingray and not him.
After leaving, they returned 20 minutes later and got even closer this time.
“This time the big one came right up to me and swam right under my jet ski,” Laumatia said.
“I had a snapper on my line at the time and was nervous they might try and take it, luckily they didn’t seem interested.”
His mixture of fear and delight was captured in the video he took of the close encounter.
“Wowsas. Thank you so much for the show. Please don’t knock me out. How cool is that? Ooooh, I’m scared. Keep breathing David – you’ll be alright. They’re just after stingrays,” Laumatia can be heard saying.
“Where have you gone? Oh, here he is. Right here. Right here – look at him. Oh my God (orca swims under jetski). Oh, hi guys, bloody hell, don’t hit my boat. Where’d they go? Oh, that was a little bit freaky.”
Since posting to the NZ Fishing Community Facebook page he’s had more than 1000 likes and comments from people interested in his close encounter with orcas.
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