{"id":128616,"date":"2025-11-08T11:30:13","date_gmt":"2025-11-08T11:30:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/128616\/"},"modified":"2025-11-08T11:30:13","modified_gmt":"2025-11-08T11:30:13","slug":"photographers-see-a-seal-being-chased-by-orcas-then-he-jumps-onto-their-boat","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/128616\/","title":{"rendered":"Photographers See A Seal Being Chased By Orcas \u2014 Then He Jumps Onto Their Boat"},"content":{"rendered":"

Being in the right place at the right time can change everything. For one harbor seal off the coast of Washington state, it meant the difference between life and death.<\/p>\n

Earlier this week, a stranded seal got a lifeline when he spotted a boat carrying Smith Siromaskul, his wife, Terese Drummond, and their friend, Charvet Drucker, in Puget Sound. The trio of amateur wildlife photographers had set out that day hoping to spot some orcas. But when they encountered a pod near Rocky Point, they found themselves in the midst of a high stakes pursuit.<\/p>\n

\"TailCharvet Drucker @charvetd_photography<\/p>\n

\u201cThey were definitely chasing something,\u201d Siromaskul told The Dodo. \u201cThen we saw something get launched out of the water.\u201d<\/p>\n

That airborne something was a seal.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe seal was being used as hunting practice for the younger orcas in the pod,\u201d Drucker told The Dodo.<\/p>\n

\"SealCharvet Drucker @charvetd_photography<\/p>\n

The group watched for about 45 minutes, cringing at times, as the pod hunted the seal.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s incredible to have the opportunity to watch whale behavior, and the orca needed to eat, but at the same time, you feel for this seal,\u201d Siromaskul said. \u201cWe wanted to yell to him, \u2018Hey! Get up here!\u2019 But we didn’t want to scare him off.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"OrcasCharvet Drucker @charvetd_photography<\/p>\n

Suddenly, the splashing stopped. The orcas seemed to grow tired of the chase and began closing in on the seal. And that’s when the little animal beelined toward the photographers’ boat, jumping aboard just in time.<\/p>\n

You can watch that moment here:<\/p>\n

The whales headed straight for the boat. Siromaskul had to cut the engine so the propeller would not injure the marine mammals.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn that moment, I was in absolute awe of being so close to the seal and multiple orcas, but I was scared for our little seal friend,\u201d Drucker said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe orca realized, \u2018OK, they have the seal,\u2019\u201d Siromaskul said. \u201cWe could see their heads popping up and eyeballing the boat. The seal is looking at us, looking at the water, and the whales are looking at us, looking at the seal.\u201d<\/p>\n

Then, in a suspense-filled moment, the seal slipped off the boat and back into the water.<\/p>\n

Smith Siromaskul<\/p>\n

\u201cI thought, \u2018No! No! No!\u2019 But I was trying to be quiet so I didn\u2019t scare the seal away,\u201d Siromaskul said.<\/p>\n

The seal jumped back onto the boat, only to fall off again and jump back on. That\u2019s when the pod of apex predators changed their strategy. \u201cThe whales did this coordinated movement on the surface to try to generate a wave, and that wave made him slip and fall again,\u201d Siromaskul said.<\/p>\n

Miraculously, the seal not only made it back to the boat a third time, but had outsmarted the orcas, too.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe pawed his way up onto the engine and managed to get himself up onto the back seat,\u201d Siromaskul said. \u201cAfter a little while, he felt safe with us. He waddled over to the side so he could see overboard, and sat there.\u201d<\/p>\n

Smith Siromaskul<\/p>\n

The orcas didn\u2019t give up easily; they circled and swam under the boat for 20 minutes. Finally, the whales seemed to realize it was game over and swam off.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve been asked a few times if we were scared, and the answer is, \u2018No,\u2019\u201d Drucker said. \u201cOrcas are extremely intelligent and wanted nothing to do with us or the boat.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"HarborCharvet Drucker @charvetd_photography<\/p>\n

The seal was so exhausted and relieved that he fell asleep.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe got through the whole, \u2018Oh my god, there’s a seal on board phase,\u2019\u201d Siromaskul said. \u201cNow it was, \u2018How is this gonna play out? What\u2019s the end game? I can\u2019t touch him. I can\u2019t move him. I\u2019m not going to shove him overboard.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Smith Siromaskul<\/p>\n

Now the boat had an unexpected fourth passenger, and the human crew faced a dilemma: What should they do?<\/p>\n

Siromaskul began texting whale experts and conservation groups for guidance. After getting some advice, Siromaskul flipped on the engine and started heading toward the shore \u2014 but the seal kept snoozing.<\/p>\n

\"SealSmith Siromaskul<\/p>\n

\u201cFinally, he woke up, sniffed the air, looked around, sniffed the air again. It was like the seal was sensing if it was safe,\u201d Siromaskul said.<\/p>\n

Siromaskul slowed the boat, and the seal jumped in the water and disappeared. The crew couldn’t believe what they’d just witnessed.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was one of the most incredible experiences I’m ever going to have. It was the encounter of a lifetime,\u201d Siromaskul said.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou see these kinds of experiences on social media, but never expect it to happen to you,\u201d Drucker said. \u201cIt was a truly unforgettable experience and I\u2019m so happy it ended the way it did.\u201d<\/p>\n

Good thing they had their cameras ready.<\/p>\n

\"Woman<\/a>Woman Tries To Help Giant Bird Standing In Street \u2014 And He Follows Her Home”My brain said, \u2018Nope, this isn\u2019t really happening.\u2019\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Being in the right place at the right time can change everything. For one harbor seal off the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":128617,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[5822,1285,61,60,75368,66974,82,25309,1284,1282,1976,263,54270,57534],"class_list":{"0":"post-128616","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-wildlife","8":"tag-animal-encounters","9":"tag-daily-dodo","10":"tag-ie","11":"tag-ireland","12":"tag-mary-schwager","13":"tag-orcas","14":"tag-science","15":"tag-seal","16":"tag-standard","17":"tag-the-dodo","18":"tag-whale","19":"tag-wildlife","20":"tag-wildlife-photography","21":"tag-wildlife-rescue"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/128616","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=128616"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/128616\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/128617"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=128616"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=128616"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=128616"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}