November 28, 2019 - I am sitting here in Oslo, Norway in my hotel room trying to process this past week. It has been one hell of a week, and it is going to be a long time until I am able to forget this week and what I saw and felt. Not really sure where to begin and not going to bore you with the travel details, all I can say is I was completely overwhelmed with emotions this week. There was so many orcas, I mean we hit either the jackpot, or one of the best weeks of the season when we got here. Hundreds of orcas were out here scattered all over the Fjords. Along with a good 40 to 50 humpback whales as well. Maybe even more. There was a lot of them.
And I am not sure what the humpbacks were doing? Along with seeking out herring to eat, they were also doing some weird socializing, where they would sit together at the surface, and then all together just drop down to the depths, then pop up to the surface, in another area, and do it again.. Sometimes it was 5 or 6, and sometimes more. During one of these sittings, we counted 30 humpback whales. It was crazy. We jumped in with them during that massive gathering and caught glimpses of them as they dropped down to the depth. It was one hell of a show.
My biggest fear, when I am here in the Arctic, is of course the weather. I was nervous about being cold on the boat, (because I have been on our previous trips…like miserably cold). But this time around I did it right. I wore the right combination of under garments to help keep me toasty warm for my moments in the water and on the boat. The secret, for those of you interested is wearing a neoprene shorty wetsuit underneath my fleece undergarment, and it freaking worked so well. It kept my core warm, which kept everything else comfortable.
Super pumped for next season when I improve on it for added warmth and flexibility. Of course next season I think I am going to dive semi-dry. I want to be able to free dive a little bit better. This year I was stuck at the surface in my dry suit, with no real opportunity to free dive properly, even though I had weights. Just didn’t get it dialed in right, but I am cool with it. My biggest fear was not being comfortable in the water, and I was, so am happy with this experience.
So back to the orcas, and not really sure where to start; although I know where I want to finish is with the herring fishermen. There are a lot of herring boats out there and the amount of fish they are taking is going to have a serious impact on these orca and humpback whale populations. I am hoping the officials will come to their senses, or at least look at the amount of money being brought in to this country, due to tourism and hopefully change their policies and quotas on herring fishing, because they take a lot of fish. The tourism here brings in a lot of money for the locals. It is an extremely important revenue stream and I think much more sustainable than herring fishing, for the local economies.
Any way back to the orcas; I think what I will do is share from my personal journal, notes from our best day on the water. Because that day was so damn good.
November 25, 2019 - Today I finally had the day I was dreaming of, and hoping would happen. We finally had a herring bait ball, with a lot of orcas and humpback whales on it. It was super dark and murky and difficult to capture photographs, but damn was it awesome. When we jumped in, we could hear the chaos, even with our hoods on. The orcas were clicking and squealing like crazy. Our boat stayed away from the action and we had to swim to the bait ball. When we got there, it took a little while, swimming in dry suits is a bit of a challenge. It was thick with fish and there was orcas all over it. The light was fading fast, and it was super dark. We found it towards the end of our day, sadly, with not much light left, it made the water even darker than normal. But I didn’t care. Jumping in with a baitball that had orcas and humpbacks on it was everything I dreamed it would be. Of course the humpbacks made it a bit intimidating to be near the baitball.
We were floating next to the herring ball, watching the orcas below, slamming their tails into it, when all of sudden we felt this pressure rush of water as a humpback swam up and through the bait ball. We could barely see the whale, its white flippers stood out against the dark water, which helped us see it. I looked up and damn was it super close to us. I was on fire with adrenaline from what had just happened, and the fact that we were so close to this massive animal as it swam through, mouth open. DAMN was all I could think. Being in the water with these animals was one of my biggest dreams ever. No words can ever express what I was feeling at that moment.
The orcas were everywhere I didn’t know where to look. I just snapped away. I knew the images were probably going to be horrible, because it was difficult to see, it was just too dark. As I reviewed my images on the boat, I was bummed that only one sort of came out. A proof of life shot, that I was there. Of course I didn’t care, I was so happy for the experience.
The water was getting darker and darker, and I decided to get out when I couldn’t see the humpback whales anymore. I sadly pulled myself away from this baitball and back onto the boat. My smile was endless that day. Overall it was an amazing day of orcas with our guests and a huge relief for me. I really wanted a bait ball for them. Yes, we saw orcas everyday, and yes it has been amazing, but it wasn’t spectacular, and it sure wasn’t WOW! I really wanted a wow day for them. Hoping for a wow day tomorrow as well.
Recorded a quick vlog from our day, which shows the orcas on the baitball.