False orca encounter

Wade Hughes & Robyn Hughes · Issue 63, Nov/Dec 2011 · pp. 47–49

The whale rushed to catch up with our rigid inflatable and romped in the bow wave until we slowed and stopped the boat. It remained under the boat close to the surface and, when I entered the water, it immediately swam towards me. It was a false orca (Pseudorcacrassidens), more correctly a dolphin, rather than a whale. It was alone, whistling and squeaking continuously and loudly. We were about seven nautical miles off the south coast of Pico in the Azores, in water about a thousand metres deep. As the boat drifted away under the press of the wind, the false orca followed it, then returned to approach me, then returned to the boat. It repeated this cycle for about 20 minutes. On a number of occasions, as it approached, it opened its jaws sligthly to reveal the very adequate teeth with which it seizes prey that range from pelagic fish such as tuna and mahi-mahi, to smaller dolphins. While…