A viral video showing several orcas surrounding a woman’s paddleboard off the coast of New Zealand is recirculating on social media. Although the woman was out there observing these animals, she was fighting off panic as the pod came very close, at times bumping her board. She called the encounter “amazing” but admits: “I was freaking out.”
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According to local news, the woman, Cayla Fickling, is a graduate of the University of Auckland’s marine-science school. She was out for a SUP (stand-up paddleboard) session when she spotted a pod of orcas up ahead. She stopped to observe them from a safe distance, but the orcas had other plans.
In the footage, Fickling is clearly nervous about the apex predators’ proximity as they surround her board. Although she’d studied orcas at university and knew wild orcas aren’t aggressive toward humans, Fickling is clearly trying to convince herself of that fact as they swarm her.
Watch as orcas surround a paddleboarder off the coast of New Zealand here: