Longing for Orcas
by Sandrine Pantel
I’ve been back home for several days now, and I still find it hard to believe the incredible experience I’ve just lived is real. Not once in my life could I have imagined I would be standing, one day, on the deck of a boat to admire and get to know the fantastic marine mammals of our planet off the coast of Iceland for several weeks!
Now I’m home again, I miss orcas the most. I miss seeing them appear in the distance, I miss hearing their breaths as they dived over and over again all around us, I miss seeing the little ones spy-hopping and leaping out of the water next to their mother or another calf… I miss everything about encountering them. Whenever you see them, time seems to stop and you just watch in awe as these whole families of black and white beings let you share a moment of their lives and even seem to enjoy your presence by coming so close to you that you can see them swim under the water surface and emerge before your amazed eyes.
During these three weeks, I really discovered how fascinating orcas are. They are fascinating to us, because they reflect the best versions of ourselves, as human beings: they are top predators but adapt to their environment without destroying it, they are immensely connected to each other and never let each other down, the bonds they share are extremely tight and they live all together in harmony. They have an intelligence we are only beginning to grasp and being around them is both wonderful and really soothing for the soul, giving you the feeling of a real connection with nature and a glimpse of what human societies could look like if we had their level of consciousness. They are far wiser than us, choosing to follow the matriarch of the group and doing everything to protect the whole pod, leaving no member behind.
Orcas are beautiful and intelligent animals who need to be protected just like every other inhabitant of the sea, and I am really worried about the situation of the Southern Residents community in Canada, starving because of a tragic lack of salmon in the waters, or by the contamination through pollution, particularly the threat of the pollutants known as polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) faced by all orcas and their offspring all around the world. If you want to help protect them, be sure to use as little plastic as possible, to recycle as much as you can, to reduce your fish consumption and to avoid using toxic products in your daily life that could end up in the ocean (hygiene products, household cleaners, etc.).
My love for orcas has only just begun, and so have my encounters with them, I hope! Being a volunteer for their protection is the most concrete thing I could do, and I wouldn’t hesitate for one second to do it again, for… how sad and immensely tragic would it be to live in a world without orcas?
