Moment Divers Come Face-to-Face With Pod of Killer Whales in Rare Encounter

While swimming off the coast of North Sulawesi in Indonesia, Reinhard Santoso and his diving buddy, Ribka Malise, came across an ethereal sight.

Just feet away from where they were swimming they saw a pod of orcas, gliding toward the surface above them. Santoso and Malise caught the whole encounter on GoPro, which they shared to Instagram in a joint post that has been viewed over 680,000 times.

"Amidst the enchanting world beneath the waves, we discovered a moment of pure magic," Santoso said in the post. "Bumping into Orcas during our dive was a surreal experience that words simply cannot do justice. The way they moved with such grace and power was mesmerizing."

The dive had started off quite unremarkably, Malise said in an Instagram Story: "Something was different that morning. The usual hustle and bustle of the underwater world was missing."

Malise switched on her GoPro "hoping to find something interesting to photograph." It was then that they saw the orcas.

"Out of nowhere, it happened," she said. "A magnificent orca appeared before us, gracefully gliding through the water like a true queen of the sea. We couldn't believe our eyes!"

Santoso said that he and Malise were left speechless. "I found myself [stopping] breathing for a few seconds because it's so magical and it feels like a dream," he told Newsweek.

Santoso, who runs a local dive tour agency called Gorontalo Dive with Malise, said the orcas had been seen from the beach once before, but no one had ever encountered them underwater. "We predict that this might be the time where the Orcas [migrate] from one place to another, but we don't know that for sure yet," he said.

Orcas, also known as killer whales, can be found in all of the world's oceans, in both coastal waters and open seas. Despite their name, killer whales are not actually whales—they are dolphins that can grow to lengths of up to 32 feet and weigh up to 11 tons, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

Although orcas are formidable predators, there are no records of them ever hunting and killing humans in the wild despite their diverse diet and global distribution.

"The physiology of these animals suggests that they are smart enough to know that humans are not prey," Deborah Giles, the science and research director for the Washington state–based nonprofit Wild Orca, previously told Newsweek. "Now why is that?

"I think that it comes down to more of a culture question," she continued. "They learn to eat what their mothers teach them to eat, and humans have never been part of that diet. Humans have never been part of the menu. I think it might be as simple as that."

Santoso said that he hopes the viral video will encourage people to take better care of our oceans and the animals that call it home. "I'd like to spread awareness about protecting the ocean," he said. "Let's protect and respect our nature."