'It was swimming around me': Free-diver captures close encounter with orca
When Ping-Yi Wu started taking a selfie while floating in the ocean near East Sooke, B.C., the tourist never imagined she would eventually capture an orca with her camera.
“I was just looking around,” Ping-Yi smiles in a Zoom call from her home in Taipei. “Just seeing what was underwater.”
Ping-Yi had travelled to B.C. from Taiwan to visit her friend and fellow free-diver Ethan Peng.
“Everything just seemed normal,” Ethan recalls. “We had a good time in the water.”
Ethan was hoping to introduce Ping-Yi to some of the many creatures he’d met under the sea, like an octopus (which are certainly shy around strangers), or the manta ray (that seemed to greet the divers with a smile).
“Whenever wild animals come by,” Ethan says. “I always think that’s good luck!”
So when seals kept swimming around him, Ethan called his friend over to get some footage with her camera. But Ping-Yi kept missing them.
“I think, ‘Why not me?’” Ping Yi smiles. “Why I cannot see?”
“And then five minutes later,” Ethan says. “Ping was screaming, ‘Ahhh! Oh my God!’”
Ethan assumed Ping-Yi had been startled by a seal, until he noticed a large black fin cutting through the water.
“I realized I was wrong very quickly,” Ethan says.
And then, approaching Ping-Yi quite curiously was an orca.
“I was shocked,” Ethan says.
“It was swimming circles around me,” Ping-Yi says. “It was very close.”
Although it was close enough to touch, she didn’t. Although it felt like a dream, it wasn’t.
“I feel wow!” Ping-Yi smiles. “Beautiful.”
“I feel blessed,” Ethan says. “Honoured.”
As Ethan looks back on the video, he also couldn’t feel more grateful to have shared it with his friend.
“It is the experience in our water here,” Ethan says.
Which is why — despite having her video as a souvenir — before returning home, Ping-Yi bought a more tangible reminder of her remarkable orca encounter — a "fluffy, killer whale stuffie."
“It’s a very good experience and memory,” Ping-Yi smiles while cradling the toy in her arm. “A forever memory.”
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
Chants of 'shame on you' greet guests arriving for the annual White House correspondents' dinner
An election-year roast of U.S. President Joe Biden before journalists, celebrities and politicians at the annual White House correspondents' dinner Saturday.
What is a 'halal mortgage'? Does it make housing more accessible?
The 2024 federal budget announced on April 16 included plans to introduce “halal mortgages” as a way to increase access to home ownership.
Here's where Canadians are living abroad: report
A recent report sheds light on Canadians living abroad--estimated at around four million people in 2016—and the public policies that impact them.
Deadly six-vehicle crash on Highway 400 sparked by road rage incident
One person was killed in a six-vehicle crash on Highway 400 in Innisfil Friday evening.
Opinion I just don't get Taylor Swift
It's one thing to say you like Taylor Swift and her music, but don't blame CNN's AJ Willingham's when she says she just 'doesn't get' the global phenomenon.
Invasive and toxic hammerhead worms make themselves at home in Ontario
Ontario is now home to an invasive and toxic worm species that can grow up to three feet long and can be dangerous to small animals and pets.
Harvey Weinstein hospitalized after return to New York from upstate prison
Harvey Weinstein’s lawyer said Saturday that the onetime movie mogul has been hospitalized for a battery of tests after his return to New York City following an appeals court ruling nullifying his 2020 rape conviction.
'We are declaring our readiness': No decision made yet as Poland declares it's ready to host nuclear weapons
Polish President Andrzej Duda says while no decision has been made around whether Poland will host nuclear weapons as part of an expansion of the NATO alliance’s nuclear sharing program, his country is willing and prepared to do so.
Central Alberta queer groups react to request from Red Deer-South to reinstate Jennifer Johnson to UCP caucus
A number of LGBQT+2s groups in Central Alberta are pushing back against a request from the Red Deer South UCP constituency to reinstate MLA Jennifer Johnson into the UCP caucus.