According to National Geographic, “orcas, or killer whales, are the largest of the dolphins and one of the world’s most powerful predators. They’re immediately recognizable by their distinctive black-and-white coloring. Smart and social, orcas make a wide variety of communicative sounds, and each pod has distinctive noises that its members will recognize even at a distance” (https://www.nationalgeographic.com/animals/mammals/o/orca/).
Below is a video posted by Lebanese fishermen; story from An Nahar and reported in the media from Cyprus in both Greek and English:
https://knews.kathimerini.com.cy/en/news/orca-sighting-caught-on-video
In the video, we can hear the voices of Lebanese guys, chatting at one point in Arabic, and saying “WOW” every time they are admiring the beauty of that orca, namely at 0:57-1:02, 1:35-1:45, and 1:57-2:04 minutes of the video.
According to Dr. Michel Bariche, Marine biology professor at the American University of Beirut (https://www.aub.edu.lb/pages/profile.aspx?MemberId=mb39), “orcas are absolutely harmless. They usually live in cold waters, namely oceans. It is unclear whether this particular orca is the same one seen in Cyprus or one of the same family. He may be lost, sick, or was deviated from his path because of the sound of boats or even submarines, etc. He hopes he will find his way to Gibraltar safely…” (https://www.annahar.com/article/1117399-).
This story made Bambi recall memories from her teen years when she was enjoying her time on a paddle board in the Mediterranean sea. She bumped into 5 giant turtles! She was so excited and also concerned as they looked like still. She paddled as fast as she could to the shores, asking for help. It turned out that the five of them were all dead :(, perhaps from the earlier shelling, she has been told.
To conclude this post, Bambi would like to join her voice to Dr. Bariche to wish this cute orca (and his family, if any?) safe travels back home! Thanks for visiting :).
