Video Captures Killer Whale Sending Seal Flying Near Victoria!
Who knew that seals could fly? Actually they can’t; what people have seen while touring with a whale-watching company is a killer whale or orca attacking a sea lion.
The hapless sea lion was no match for the whale as it casually tossed the seal more than 20 feet into the air! It is relatively rare to see an orca hunt in progress, but to capture it on video is even rarer.
The whale watching company is called Eagle Wing Tours, and it operates out of Victoria, British Columbia. A video to promote the company was being shot when cameraman Mike Walker was able to capture the incredible event on film.
The killer whale was known to researchers and others as T69C. Walker, who owns Roll Focus Productions, was lucky to get the images on film because these rare events may take just a couple of seconds to occur. Killer whales are also known as orcas, blackfish, or grampus, and they are regarded as apex predators.
This means that they have no natural predators on the food chain. British Columbia, along with Washington state, has a resident population of orcas to which T69C may belong. These animals have been placed on the Endangered Species list of the U.S.
By Monday afternoon, the video — “Transient whale punts a seal 80 feet into the air near Victoria, B.C.” — had more than 58,000 views on YouTube and more than 260,000 on Facebook.