The scared otter quickly moves toward the boat to the back, where it can jump onto the transom and escape the danger. A few seconds later, the big orca’s head pops up next to the boat. It had been following the offer. Dornellas, 37 and works as a guide for the local water taxi company Coldwater Alaska, caught the whole thing on video.
“Is this happening right now?” he asks in disbelief as the orca swims around his boat and the otter tensely thinks about what to do next.
Dornellas tries to get the otter to stay on board by telling it, “I’m not going to hurt you, you’re good.”
The otter goes back into the water but quickly jumps back on the boat. Chantrelle Major, on a nearby boat, also took a picture of the scene as the big orca slowly circled Dornellas’ boat.
T&T Creative Media, which put the video on YouTube, says that after the orca left, Dornellas took the boat to his next pick-up, where the otter slipped away safely.
People think the pod of three orcas is a family that moves around. Orcas that move around eat marine mammals like seals and otters. They come from the cold northern waters of Alaska and Canada and go as far south as California. Most of the time, orcas who live in the north eat fish.
