Chasing Orcas & Auroras - Northern Norway
A successful expedition to find and swim with Orca whales, and chase the Northern Lights.
In the quest to go through my backlog of images and stories, here’s another adventure from late 2022 - exploring the north of Norway on the lookout for Orca whales, and hoping to see some Northern Lights on the way.
We started our trip from Tromso, taking a bus to Skjervoy, a small town in the northernmost part of Norway, far beyond the Arctic circle, where we boarded our boat, the Bergsund - home for the next week. Organized by https://www.orcanorway.info, this expedition is focused on finding orca around the fjords, and if the conditions are right, get into dry suits (or wet ones if you’re experienced), jump into a small dhingy boat, and with a bit of luck, snorkel and swim next to these amazing creatures. The time on the boat also includes several sessions by Pierre Robert de Latour, the “Orca Whisperer”, which culminate in the USEA certification for participants and really helps understand the behavior of orca in the wild.
On the Lookout
The daily ritual is trying to spot pods of orca whales in the vast sea around the boat - not an easy task, as they can travel very quickly and spend long stretches under water. We had a lucky mascot though that seemed to have helped a bit.
Humpbacks All Around
Aside from orcas, the area is home to a few groups of humpback whales during this time of the year. We had two great encounters, once from the boat and a bit of distance (the weather was not great) and once in the water, as they were feeding alongside the orca whales. The feeling of these creatures diving up a few meters away from you and whacking their flukes on the water is...intimidating to say the least.
Humpbacks breach frequently, and throw their bodies out of the water. Impressive, considering they weigh 40 tons and grow around 15 meters in length. This juvenile had not quite reached those numbers yet though.
Orca Encounters
The excitement when seeing them from a distance and being lucky enough to get close is difficult to describe. Their elegance in the water, social interactions, curiosity, and just sheer size makes them one of my favorite animals - as is often the case with wildlife, experiencing it in its natural environment provides a very different perspective to documentaries or zoos and changes your relationship to these animals forever.
Landscapes of the North
Even on days without wildlife encounters, the stunning fjords all around make for amazing scenery, either bathing in the low sun - there are only a few hours of sunshine each day this far north in the winter - or covered in clouds and adorned by dramatic overcast skies.
The light hits different up here…
Green Nights
We docked in a few different harbors for the night during the expedition, and had a good chance to see some Northern Lights - of course I couldn’t resist and went out to capture some of the colorful magic in the sky when the conditions were right.
A short timelapse from the same spot. You’ll see my tiny self appear on the bottom right for a few frames at the end.
In the Water - The Main Event
Of course, the highlight of this trip was jumping into the water, knowing (or hoping) that there are orca whales that pass you close enough to see them, or even stick around while they are feeding. That sounds simple in principle, but it's often hard to anticipate their movement, approaching carefully and always ensuring to not interrupt their behavior with the dhingy.
The encounters are unpredictable and often very short - by the time you move around in your (huge, buoyant) dry suit, the animals might have reached the coast of Alaska 😉 and you’re only worried that none of that ice cold (5C) water enters the suit you have to wear for the next five hours.
I took all my under water footage with the iPhone in a case. This in principle delivers better results than a GoPro (and a more pleasant focal length) but it took me time to figure out how to avoid focus hunting and in general dealing with the new environment. Rest assured, next time I’ll know better and will have an underwater case for my trusty Olympus camera… Regardless of the photographic outcome, this was truly a privileged wildlife encounter, and ranks high up there for me, maybe only topped (if that) by my time with Craig, the elephant with the largest tusks in Africa.
We had a few amazing encounters, including a feeding where a pod of orca started to work the bait ball. They surround a school of herring and use tail slaps to stun them, then calmly feed. The orcas were joined by a number of humpbacks, and it became a frenzy that was difficult to grasp. This was also the only moment where our guides wisely decided we should leave the water, not due to any aggression, but because a humpback fluke isn’t something you want to be any closer to than necessary. Despite that, I never had the feeling of being in danger. The approach Orcanorway takes is full of respect and appreciation for these animals, and unlike many other such encounters around the world, sanctioned and licensed by the local government.
Contrary to the reputation that’s associated with killer whales (it’s in the name already…), there has not been a single documented intentional attack of an orca on a human in the wild. Every incident occurred in captivity, and it’s not surprising given the conditions these jailed individuals have to live in for large parts of their lives.
Last Light in Tromsø
After a week on the boat it was time to head back to Tromso - which greeted us with a display of strong Northern Lights, easily outperforming the city’s light pollution. I spent one more day in the city before moving on to Finland (another blog in the backlog).
A Final Glimpse
This was taken at pretty much exactly at 12 noon on November 19th, 2022 - just 1 week later, the sun would no longer rise for another 6 weeks or so, only leaving a few hours of blue light during the day for Tromso’s population of 65,000.
