KEY LARGO, Fla. – Incredible video was captured last weekend in the Florida Keys after a group of orca whales were spotted just off Key Largo.
Mike Slaughter and his buddies couldn’t believe what they were seeing Saturday.
They were fishing just 20 miles off the coast of Key Largo when a curious group of orcas came right up to his boat, one with a large fish right in its mouth.
Marine scientists say the encounter was extremely rare.
Those fishermen were very, very lucky, that’s all I can tell you,” said Cetacean expert Dr. Jeremy Kiszka with the Florida International University Institute of Environment.
Orcas are usually found in the cooler waters of the Pacific Northwest, the eastern northern Atlantic Ocean and the Arctic, but travel in all the planet’s ocean, even here in South Florida.
“Killer whales in the wider Caribbean region, which includes our waters here in South Florida, are frequented by killer whales, but it’s fairly rare,” said Kiszka.
Kiszka believes it may be a subset of the Caribbean Orcas usually found near the Lesser Antilles and South America. Some have even been seen in the Bahamas.
“They’re like ghosts,” he said. “You have to be extremely lucky to find them.”
Orca sightings have been documented in the Florida Straits before, but it doesn’t happen often.
“It’s a dozen records since the mid-19th century, so it’s since the 1850s,” said Kiszka. “So it’s a long period of time.”
Other marine scientists agree that this was a once in a lifetime encounter.
“Basically orcas that are in that Caribbean region, that Southern population, they typically don’t come this far up north,” said marine scientist Kirk Linaje.
So what can be driving these orcas so far from home? Are they chasing prey? Is the planet’s rapidly warming ocean affecting fisheries forcing these orcas to look elsewhere for food?
The jury’s still out.
“We don’t have sufficient data to actually tell what drives these animals to actually come close to our shores,” said Kiszka.
The curious orcas hung out with Slaughter and his friends for a few good minutes before taking off into the open ocean.
The magical moment underscores why so many South Floridians are fighting so hard to protect and restore our natural paradise.