Swimming with Orca : My Life with New Zealand's Killer Whales

by Visser, Ingrid

• ISBN13: 9780143019831
• ISBN10: 014301983X
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2006-12-27
• Publisher: Penguin Global

Summary

Meet the woman whose life revolves around orca, or killer whales. This book tells the fascinating story of Dr Ingrid Visser, a marine scientist who has spent the past ten years studying these creatures. During this time she has got to know many New Zealand orca intimately; she calls them her friends and can identify some by sight. Ingrid has a hands-on approach to her study - getting into the water with them, watching them hunt and interacting in any way she can. Ingrid is the only person to work with orca in the South Pacific and has discovered many differences between their behaviour here and in the northern hemisphere. The book is packed with interesting facts about orca in New Zealand and also tells Ingrid's own personal story and the inspiring encounters she has had with these intriguing animals.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements	7
Prologue Ingrid and the Orca	9
Chapter One A Girl at Sea	17
Chapter Two Orca Project — First Steps	31
Chapter Three The Science of Orca	45
Chapter Four My Doctoral Research	63
Chapter Five Orca around the World	85
Chapter Six Dexterous Predators and Dangerous Prey	103
Chapter Seven Close Encounters of the Orca Kind	121
Chapter Eight Ben the Wayward Orca	145
Chapter Nine Filming Orca in the Wild	163
Chapter Ten The Battle of the Thesis	177
Chapter Eleven Adopt an Orca	191
Chapter Twelve Where to Now?	201
Appendix One Revered and Feared — Orca through the Ages	215
Appendix Two Extracts from my PhD Thesis	227
Glossary Orca Terminology	237