{"id":297319,"date":"2025-11-17T15:50:08","date_gmt":"2025-11-17T15:50:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/297319\/"},"modified":"2025-11-17T15:50:08","modified_gmt":"2025-11-17T15:50:08","slug":"seal-escapes-orca-hunt-by-jumping-onto-photographers-boat-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/297319\/","title":{"rendered":"Seal Escapes Orca Hunt By Jumping Onto Photographer\u2019s Boat"},"content":{"rendered":"

SEATTLE (AP) \u2014 A wildlife photographer out on a whale watching trip in waters off Seattle captured dramatic video and photos of a pod of killer whales hunting a seal that survived only by clambering onto the stern of her boat.<\/p>\n

Charvet Drucker was on a rented 20-foot (6-meter) boat near her home on an island in the Salish Sea about 40 miles northwest of Seattle when she spotted a pod of at least eight killer whales, also known as orcas.<\/p>\n

The orcas\u2019 coordinated movements and tail slaps suggested they were hunting. Drucker used the zoom lens on her camera to spot a harbor seal that was trying to flee from the pod. One of her shots showed the seal flying through the air above the scrum of orcas frothing the water, and she assumed she was witnessing the seal\u2019s last moments alive.<\/p>\n

But as the orcas got closer to the boat, Drucker and her group realized the pod was still chasing the seal. In line with wildlife boating regulations, they had cut the engine to prevent any injury to the whales. The seal clambered out of the water and onto a swimming platform at the stern of the boat near the motor \u2014 claiming it as a life raft of sorts.<\/p>\n

\"Seal\"<\/p>\n

Charvet Drucker via AP<\/p>\n

Wildlife regulations also prohibit touching or interfering with the seal, but Drucker began filming video.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou poor thing,\u201d Drucker can be heard saying, as the seal looks up at her. \u201cYou\u2019re good, just stay, buddy.\u201d<\/p>\n

The orcas did not give up immediately, but instead appeared to team up to rock the boat and make the seal fall off. Drucker\u2019s cellphone video shows the orcas lining up and moving in on the boat with staggered dives to create waves. The \u201cwave-washing\u201d technique has been documented since by scientists since at least the 1980s, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.<\/p>\n

The seal on Drucker\u2019s boat slid off at least once, but managed to climb back on, and the orcas swam away after about 15 minutes.<\/p>\n

Drucker has photographed dead seals in the mouths of orcas before, and she says she\u2019s generally happy when the whales get to eat.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m definitely Team Orca, all day, every day. But once that seal was on the boat, I kind of turned (into) Team Seal,\u201d she said in an interview with The Associated Press on Thursday.<\/p>\n

The killer whales that hunt seals and a diverse set of marine animals in the area are known as Bigg\u2019s or \u201ctransient\u201d orcas. They are better fed then other more specialized species like the salmon-focused \u201cresident\u201d orcas who are on the endangered species list, according to NOAA.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SEATTLE (AP) \u2014 A wildlife photographer out on a whale watching trip in waters off Seattle captured dramatic…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":297320,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[51],"tags":[155180,139559,79,201],"class_list":{"0":"post-297319","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-wildlife","8":"tag-charvet-drucker","9":"tag-killer-whales","10":"tag-science","11":"tag-wildlife"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/297319","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=297319"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/297319\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/297320"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=297319"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=297319"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=297319"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}