A man has been slapped with a heavy fine after trying to “body slam” protected marine mammals. New Zealand’s Department of Conservation took to the video-sharing platform Instagram to publish footage it described as “shocking”.
In the clip, an adult male orca and a calf can be seen swimming near a boat, from which a man is filmed jumping.
The man, who was in waters off the coast of Devonport, a harbourside suburb of Auckland, dived very closely to the mammals, whose dorsal fins could be seen quickly returning under the sea after his arrival.
In the video, first shared on Instagram in February, the swimmer remains in the water, seemingly trying to reach the orcas – also known as killer whales.
Blasting this behaviour, the government department said the man had shown a “disregard for his own safety” and that of the innocent animals.
After the video was brought to the attention of the Conservation Department, the man was slapped with a £287.99 (NZ$600) fine, the agency said.
In a caption accompaying the video, the department wrote: “A man who leapt from a boat into the water near two orcas has been slapped with a $600 infringement. The incident showed a shocking and stupid attitude to protected marine mammals.
“The video shared to Instagram in February, shows the man jump from a boat into the sea off the coast of Devonport – in what appears to be a deliberate effort to touch or ‘body slam’ the orca. The man showed reckless disregard for his own safety – and that of the adult male orca with a calf swimming near the vessel.
“We were subsequently tipped off to this video by a member of the public. We would like to thank those who continue to alert us to potential breaches of New Zealand’s wildlife laws.”
Unmistakable thanks to their black and white markings, free-living orcas aren’t known to have ever intentionally attacked humans, while there have been incidents involving captive killer whales.
In recent years, killer whales swimming near the Spanish and Moroccan coasts have attracted the attention of the media and the public due to the rise in the number of vessels they clashed with.
Scientists looking into this unusual behaviour, which has often seen the boats’ rudders being damaged and sailors left stranded, have come up with a number of possible explanations for this phenomenon – including one suggesting the orcas may simply be playing with the vessels.
