Close brush with orca ‘no risk’ to swimming children

Orca expert Poppy Halliday has weighed in on a frightening experience when two orca circled past two swimming children on Thursday afternoon at Waiheke Island’s Enclosure Bay.

The children frantically tried to swim away before clinging to each other as the orca flanked them then cruised out to sea.

Veteran marine guide and Whale Rescue co-founder Halliday said it was typical orca behaviour.

She said the two orca were ‘‘probably just curious about the kids’’ and split past them like a group of people would pass strangers ‘‘walking down the middle of the footpath’’.

The animal’s sonar-like echolocation senses would have picked up the children from up to 80 metres out, she said.

‘‘Sometimes they’re echolocating, they’re seeing something and that makes them curious’’.

Closing in, the mammal’s reputedly ‘‘pretty good’’ eyesight would have confirmed no snack was to be had. Orca like getting their fill from sea creatures like stingrays, Halliday said.

‘‘There’s never been an attack by orca on humans in the wild that anyone’s aware of.’’

Nevertheless, ‘‘anyone’’ let alone children would have ‘‘got a hell of a fright’’ having the ocean predators sashay by, Halliday said.

Two men in kayaks went out to retrieve the pair.

One of them, Kit Doudney, said the girl, aged about 8, and a boy aged about 11, were not wearing wetsuits. They had been snorkelling and hadn’t heard calls from the shore to get out of the water. There were about 20 people on the beach about 2.45pm who saw the two fins approaching from the eastern entrance to the bay, he said.

‘‘Someone yelled ‘shark, shark, shark’ and about 15 people got out of the sea.’’