‘Very exciting’: Killer whale caught on camera by Alaskan boaters
SEWARD, Alaska - Boaters got a "killer" view when they spotted an orca whale in Alaska on June 27.
Footage captured by Cara Wilson showed the killer whale leaping out of the waters of Aialik Bay near Seward, Alaska.
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Cara Wilson recorded a video of the moment, as she looked at the waters from a fishing boat with her husband.
Wilson told FOX Television Stations that she takes her boat out into Aialik Bay a couple of times a year.
"There were a ton of them around, so I was taking videos for a while when I got that one," Wilson revealed. "I wasn’t worried at all. I was just thrilled that I had my camera videoing at that spot when he jumped! It was very exciting."
Wilson said there was not another boat in sight that night: "just orcas galore."
"Oh, the life of being a fisherman’s wife. I couldn’t have asked for a better adventure this weekend," Wilson said of the trip on Facebook. "The weather was perfect, and I got so close to so many orcas and humpbacks."
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According to the Alaska Department of Fish and Game, an estimated 323 whales comprise the community of the West Coast, with 218 whales in the waters of Washington State, British Columbia and southeast Alaska, based on photo-identification studies.
The Alaska Resident stock, which occurs from Southeast Alaska to the Aleutian Islands and the Bering Sea, has a minimum abundance of 1,123 whales, the large majority outside of Southeast Alaska. The Northern Resident stock, which occurs from approximately mid-Vancouver Island (British Columbia) throughout most of Southeast Alaska, has a minimum abundance of 216 whales.
This story was reported from Los Angeles. Storyful contributed.