This diver encounters a hungry killer whale – but the frightening encounter doesn't go as planned

A man came face to face with a killer whale. The encounter was captured on video and posted on social media by a diver who witnessed the scene.

Snorkeler Aidan Bedford believed the encounter would end very badly. The diver talked about this fun day in the middle of the sea on Instagram. The man known as wandering.westerner on the social network regularly shares his adventures at sea with his 171,000 followers.

Three days ago, Aidan Bedford had an encounter with a killer whale. The moment was captured on video by one of his drones. But as he points out in the caption of his video posted to Instagram, Aidan Bedford was not in the water at the time. The diver was safe on his boat, but he thought he was witnessing a violent orca attack.

“This morning we went out on the water looking for Mobula rays and ended up catching many more. First we saw a beautiful blue whale (pictures to follow), then we received news that there were orcas about 3 miles north of us. We decided to check it out and when we arrived there were only three other boats. From what I could see from our boat, it looked like the orcas were eating food from a recently killed orca, so I took the drone along to take a look,” the diver writes.

Orcas: dangerous animals?

Accordingly Statement from Aidan Bedford, the orca seemed disappointed to find a group of people. The marine mammal probably expected to encounter turtles or other prey on which to feed.
Despite the killer whale's hunger, a man from one of the other two boats saw fit to jump into the water alongside the animal. That's when Aidan Bedford turned on his drone.

“There were swimmers on one of the other boats ready, trying to slip into the water to see if they could get a glimpse beneath the surface… As the swimmers entered the water, the giant male turned to look , what was going on. He was probably disappointed when he saw that they were just stupid people and not another turtle or ray (which I think they were hunting).“ describes the diver.

When the man in the water, contrary to all expectations, approached the orca, the encounter went very well. Although orcas have a reputation for being dangerous predators, they never intentionally attack humans. In this case, the animal passed very close to the diver without causing him any harm.

Aiden Bedford, who observed the scene from his drone, offers an explanation. “I think it is also worth mentioning (…) Based on my personal experiences and what I have seen in my many encounters with these animals, I believe that at no point did this orca show anything other than curiosity.” It simply had to be investigated. Sometimes orcas turn around and come towards you, they come closer and look at you closely, but never touch you. As long as you don't try to touch them! We humans have bacteria on our hands that can be dangerous to marine mammals, fish, sharks, etc.”