Orca Sighting during Open-Water Course in Australia
Imagine this: It’s checkout dive No. 1 in your Open-Water course, and you spot two orcas!
That may sound unbelievable, but it’s exactly what happened to a few lucky Australian divers. Earlier this month at Bawley Point, a dive site about halfway between Ulladulla and Batemans Bay, New South Wales, Australia, a group of students were in between dives when they spotted the killer whales playing near their dive flag. When we reached out for comment from the dive shop, instructor Tom Carpenter explained that the two whales appeared to be chasing after something to eat and eventually swam off to join their pod. The encounter was all the more special for Carpenter since he was actually co-teaching his first class of Open-Water students with fellow instructor Bronwyn Ings.
“I have dived with manta rays in Bali, went to the Philippines for tec 40 & 45 and have a wide range of experience in the little time I have been diving, yet this was the most amazing dive experience of my life and I wasn't even in the water!" says Carpenter.
Indepth Scuba posted to their Facebook page on October 7 with a note about it being the first sighting by the dive shop in this area. However Orcas have been known to frequent the coastline of New South Wales. Since the post was made, it has been shared more than 400 times and more than 500 Facebook users have commented to share their excitement in this rare occurrence.
It's truly amazing the unique creatures we see and experiences we have as scuba divers. We're convinced these new divers will be hooked for life!
