Ryan’s close encounter with Orcas in Culdaff

The Derry man was surfing in the Inishowen waters when he was surrounded by a family (pod) of killer whales, one of which decided to chase him out of the water.

Ryan, a well-known musician, told the Journal how it had been a relatively normal morning surfing when at around 11.30am, his friend Stef alerted him to something unusual.

“Myself and Stef were surfing in the water and there were a few onlookers on the beach. Stef had caught a wave and was turning back off it when he started waving at me to get my attention.

“I realised I was surrounded by a family of Orcas, two adults and three juveniles. Their fins were standing about three feet out of the water.

“I’m well used to the water and have seen basking sharks, dolphins and porpoises, so I knew it definitely wasn’t one of them. I knew what I was looking at, so I also knew I shouldn’t be this close! So, there was a wee bit of panic.”

Ryan said that while, to his knowledge, there haven’t been any recorded incidents of Orcas harming humans, they seemed to be feeding and ‘weren’t swimming slowly at their leisure’.

“They would be more inquisitive and could maybe give you a nudge, But the way they were swimming scared me a bit, so I thought I better try to get out of there.

“There was a wave approaching and as it came towards me, one of the smaller juveniles started coming towards me quite aggressively. When I say smaller, he was still the size of a Transit van.”

Ryan made it to shore and said he believes the juvenile orca didn’t come in any further as it was too shallow.

He added how the situation itself was unusual in that he and Stef were no more than 100 feet out from the shore.

“It was quite shallow, which was what caught us off guard, at first. At one point, the juvenile was in water no more than shoulder height. That’s why we think they were in hunting or feeding.”

When Ryan got out of the water, a group of onlookers were able to watch the Orcas swimming in the water.

“It was brilliant, While I was in the water all I could really see were dark shadows, but when we were out, you could see the whiteness of their bellies and them breaching. The water of Culdaff is so clear, so you could see a lot.”

Ryan outlined how a person in a white jeep had been taking pictures, but they had left before they managed to catch up with them.

“We’d really love to see them, so hopefully they’ll get in touch.”

Since the experience on Friday, Ryan has been contacted by some other people who have seen Orcas up close, but said many seem to have experienced this around eight or ten years ago.

“I’m used to seeing seals and porpoises would come in every three or four weeks, but it feels abnormal to see a killer whale in Culdaff.”

Orcas have been in the news this weekend for other reasons, as the Guardian reports how they left scientists baffled after they rammed sailing boats along the Spanish and Portuguese coats.

It reported how the latest incident occurred on Friday afternoon just off A Coruña, on the northern coast of Spain. Halcyon Yachts was taking a 36ft boat to the UK when an orca rammed its stern at least 15 times. Around the same time there were radio warnings of Orca sightings 70 miles south, at Vigo, near the site of at least two recent collisions.

Researchers said it’s normal for them to follow a boat, but never with force. They are investigating what happened and said it might indicate stress.