Two young orcas repeatedly tried to push an elderly male orca to the surface so it could breathe.
Desperate moments of an elderly orca. (Video: Pierre Robert de Latour)
The final moments of an adult orca were captured in unprecedented footage. Whale watchers spotted a 35-year-old male orca, nicknamed Hunchy due to its humped back, behaving strangely underwater off the northern coast of Loppa Island in Norway in early November. Two younger orcas swam close to Hunchy, seemingly trying to keep it at the surface so it could breathe, according to Pierre Robert de Latour, an amateur diver aboard the boat.
However, the attempts to keep Hunchy afloat appeared futile, and it was evident that he was in distress. Robert de Latour jumped into the water and swam closer to the orcas for a better look. He noticed that the elderly male looked emaciated, and the shape of its belly suggested it had not eaten in a long time. In the video, Hunchy floats motionless below the surface after the two younger orcas swam away. The duo swam back and forth between Hunchy and a more distant pod of orcas, repeatedly trying to encourage the elderly male.
“This is the first time I’ve witnessed such an emotional scene; afterward, I saw Hunchy’s massive body sink. Orcas do not abandon their distressed kin,” Robert de Latour told Live Science on November 29.
The two younger orcas realized that if they abandoned Hunchy, he would gradually succumb and sink. Orcas can hold their breath underwater for up to 15 minutes; they must surface for air every minute while resting and every 3 to 5 minutes while moving. However, after 50 minutes, they seemed to lose hope. They helped their companion until the very end, Robert de Latour said.
Hunchy floats motionless below the surface after the two younger orcas swam away.
This may be the first footage of the death of an adult orca filmed in the North Atlantic, according to Filipa Samarra, an expert at the University of Iceland and founder and lead researcher of the Icelandic Orca Project. Previously, researchers had recorded moments after a calf passed away. Pod members often carry the deceased calves and push them to the surface for days. One female orca even carried her deceased calf for two years.
A second boat that arrived also witnessed a similar struggle for 1 to 2 hours afterward, but the crew could not determine whether Hunchy was trying to swim back to the surface or if the young orcas were pulling him up one last time. According to Robert de Latour, he may now be dead.
