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full screen A pod of killer whales with a calf. Archive image. Photo: Dave Ellifrit/AP/TT
A 50-year-old man has been fined by New Zealand’s Department of Conservation after attempting to pounce on a wild killer whale from a boat.
Total idiocy, states an investigator.
The measure was filmed and published on Instagram, reports The Guardian newspaper.
In the video clip, the man can be seen jumping straight from a boat and landing with a stomach splash right next to two killer whales, an adult and a calf. People on the boat can be heard laughing and swearing in the background as the man shouts that he touched the whale.
Hayden Loper, investigator at the Department of Conservation, describes the incident as a “blatant example of stupidity”.
– The video speaks for itself. It’s shocking and totally idiotic behavior.
New Zealand’s orca population, numbering between 150 and 200 individuals, is critically endangered. Jumping on a whale is considered to easily damage the animals’ delicate fins and disrupt the whales’ natural behaviors – especially when calves are involved.
According to New Zealand law, it is illegal to swim with, disturb or harass marine mammals. The 50-year-old is now fined the equivalent of almost SEK 4,000.