An unidentified New Zealand man has been fined after he leapt from a boat to ‘body slam’ a killer whale off the coast of Auckland.He did not land on the orca whale when he launched himself from the boat, but he came close enough to touch it. The adult whale had a baby calf nearby. Video footage shows the 50-year-old man jump into the water coming dangerously close to the whale. The orca flinched and turned away from him. “I touched it!” he brags.People on the boat can be heard laughing and swearing in delighted surprise as the man asks if his antics were caught on camera. He again tries to touch the whale, which swims away from him. .The incident, which occurred in February, reached the New Zealand Department of Conservation of the incident. The video has resurfaced on social media because the man has been levelled with a CA$500 fine (NZ$600).Principal investigation officer Hayden Loper said he and his colleagues were stunned by the man’s reckless behaviour, per TMZ. Officials in a statement released Tuesday said the man showed a brutal disregard for the killer whale’s wellbeing and stated the illegality of his behaviour — it is against New Zealand law to swim with orca whales. He noted killer whales can weigh more than 12,000 lbs., and the whale on the other end of the man’s assault got spooked or agitated, it could have gone a lot worse.
An unidentified New Zealand man has been fined after he leapt from a boat to ‘body slam’ a killer whale off the coast of Auckland.He did not land on the orca whale when he launched himself from the boat, but he came close enough to touch it. The adult whale had a baby calf nearby. Video footage shows the 50-year-old man jump into the water coming dangerously close to the whale. The orca flinched and turned away from him. “I touched it!” he brags.People on the boat can be heard laughing and swearing in delighted surprise as the man asks if his antics were caught on camera. He again tries to touch the whale, which swims away from him. .The incident, which occurred in February, reached the New Zealand Department of Conservation of the incident. The video has resurfaced on social media because the man has been levelled with a CA$500 fine (NZ$600).Principal investigation officer Hayden Loper said he and his colleagues were stunned by the man’s reckless behaviour, per TMZ. Officials in a statement released Tuesday said the man showed a brutal disregard for the killer whale’s wellbeing and stated the illegality of his behaviour — it is against New Zealand law to swim with orca whales. He noted killer whales can weigh more than 12,000 lbs., and the whale on the other end of the man’s assault got spooked or agitated, it could have gone a lot worse.
