Researchers from the Norwegian Orca Survey were stunned by the bad behaviour of whale watchers in a fjord in Northern Norway last weekend. Not only did they show little respect for the whales and the researchers, they became a hazard also for themselves.
Norwegian Broadcasting (NRK) reported this week what happened when nine killer whales were spotted inside the Jøkelfjorden in Kvænangen. The researchers were already on their way out to collect important data while remaining at a distance, only to face more than 70 other boats carrying tourists and local spectators.
“It was completely crazy,” the founder of the non-profit Norwegian Orca Survey, Eve Jourdain, told NRK. Her mission is to protect the whales, while all the others out on the fjord seemed most interested in taking photos and selfies, threatening the whales in the process. She reported that several of the boats approached the whales at high speed to get as close as possible to them, with some of their paying passengers landing in the water or voluntarily jumping in to snorkel with the killer whales.
See photos and video of all the commotion around the whales here (external link to NRK’s coverage, in Norwegian).
The research team feared for newborn calves and how all the boats can stress the whales. The whale-watchers showed little if any respect for the researchers either, who ended up studying human behaviour instead, at its worst.
NewsinEnglish.no staff
