A New Zealand man has been fined $600 over a video that showed him purposefully jumping off a boat and belly-flopping just above an orca with a calf.
The fine was announced Tuesday in response to a video posted in February showing the 50-year-old culprit leaping from the pleasure craft off Devonport, Auckland as onlookers laughed and egged him on.
In the video, The man splashed down just on top a male orca with a calf, and even yelled out “I touched it” and even asked the spectators “did you get it” before making a second attempt to brush against the whale.
“Yes, we got it! We got it!” the onlookers from the boat replied.
The footage was quickly flagged to the New Zealand Department of Conservation, who subsequently fined the man $600, the Standard reported.
The content of the video left experts “genuinely stunned,” Hayden Loper, an investigator with the New Zealand Department of Conservation, said.
“This is stupid behavior and demonstrates a shocking disregard for the welfare of the orca. It is extremely irresponsible,” Loper insisted.
“Orca are immensely powerful animals, and this really could have ended horribly – with either the startled whale being injured, or the man responsible being harmed by the aggravated animal,” he continued.
The man’s behavior was “a very clear breach of the Marine Mammals Protection Act,” Loper explained.
“Orca are classified as whales under conservation legislation and it is illegal to swim with whales, or disturb or harass any marine mammal,” he said.
