The woman who swims with Killer Whales


Watched a really interesting program on BBC2 about Killer Whales tonight, "The woman who swims with Killer Whales" as part of the Natural World series. Ingrid Visser is the star of the program, and is a bit Killer Whale obsessed. She is the type of woman who probably receives many killer whale themed gifts for christmas and birthdays and they are all proudly displayed at different intervals throughout her house during the program, Killer Whale photo montage here, Killer whale plush there, Killer whale clock O' yonder...you get the picture.
She starts by telling us that people think she is mad for swimming with Orcas. Which she is. Crazier than a bag of sea snakes, but her love of Killer Whales is all consuming and she has made significant research through her unorthodox method of getting up close and personal with these 6 tonne giants. The same giants that have supposedly been able to kill a Great White. Now thats scary, there is no way I would jump in the water with a Killer Whale!!!
She is convinced her beloved whales are being polluted by the toxins that enter the sea, a fact already proved in some countries...when a Killer Whale is beached it is actually classified as toxic waste and has to be carefully destroyed due to the large amount of chemicals found in their body through sea pollution. It is very sad to think of the great scale of this, and Ingrid is constantly trying to prove this is the cause of the New Zealand Killer Whale's dwindling population by grabbing blubber extracts where she can and pulling half dead sting rays out of the sea that the Killer Whales have dropped, so she can test their food and blubber for toxins.
This is an amazing woman who would even give her own life for a Killer Whale and is quite happy to jump in her car and drive for hours up the coast to spend the day unravelling a humpback from a fishing net or helping a huge pod of Pilot Whales that were beached. The Pilot whale scene was very distressing, out of about 60 whales beached only 13 survived. Not the most intelligent of the whales but very closely knit, once one is beached and calls out the others all follow and beach themselves like lemmings and drown as their blowholes fill with water in the rising tide. So sad.
Bet you wouldn't catch Ingrid at Sea World. Rock on Ingrid, your crazy but all the best people are!!!!
Watch the program again on BBC iPlayer.


Goodbye, untill next time!!!

Comments

Popular Posts