A surfer from Northern Ireland got more than he bargained for when he was chased by a pod of killer whales off Donegal last week.
As the News Letter reports, Derry man Ryan Vail was catching waves off Culdaff on the Inishowen Peninsula last Friday (11 September) when he found himself surrounded by the orca pod consisting of two adults and three juveniles.
Orcas are a rare sight in Irish inshore waters, but the marine wildlife are no strangers to Donegal.
A pod resident in western Scotland has been spotted in Lough Swilly before, and more recently in Strangford Lough, but it has not calved in many years — suggesting these visitors may come from elsewhere.
“I’m well used to the water and have seen basking sharks, dolphins and porpoises, so I knew it definitely wasn’t one of them,” Ryan said.
“I knew what I was looking at, so I also knew I shouldn’t be this close! So, there was a wee bit of panic.”
And that panic only grew when one of the smaller orcas — “the size of a Transit van” — made an aggressive dash for Ryan on his board.
The News Letter has more on the story HERE.