Swimming with Orcas - an incredible expedition to the Arctic in Norway - Before It Is All Gone

Come and see in this free documentary episode of Before It Is All Gone how it feels to swim with orcas in the freezing Arctic in the middle of the winter. It is all freezing cold, snowy and dark, and we get in the dark cold water in these harsh conditions, hoping to look at killer whales underwater. Join us in this video about our most extreme expedition yet.

If you could not decide yet if it is worth braving the cold and harsh conditions to try to swim with orcas in Norway, watch this video, which should help you to decide if this kind of trip is really for you, or not. I try to show the most interesting details of this wildlife encounter as honestly as possible. But I warn you, I am probably crazy, so I love a lot of things, and take a lot of suffering in order to be able to get the wildlife encounter I dream about.

This video is about a crazy trip we took last December to Tromso, and then by bus even a bit more to the north, Skjervoy in Norway. We boarded our ship, the Bergsund, where we stayed for three days. In the cold and dark winter Arctic days, we went out to the snow, donned our drysuits, and chased the orcas in our inflatable zodiacs day after day.

This video is not of great quality, as in the dark conditions it was almost impossible to film. We only had our GoPro cameras with us, as it was impossible to use any other camera in the cold and wet boats, while wearing 7mm thick diving gloves all the time, so we are ready to jump in the water. So surface videos are dark and grainy and the orcas are far. Then underwater things became even worst if that is possible at all. Having snow clouds over us, the water was super dark, so almost all footage came out super dark, almost black. It is almost impossible to fix them, but I love every second of it still because they remind me of the incredible experience we had. The human eyes are so much better than cameras, that we saw everything perfectly, even though it was dark. We swam alongside the orcas and jumped in again and again. Best wildlife encounters in the world.

Is it worth doing this trip, when you can swim with orcas (with less probability) in other places where you have better visibility, warmer water, and a lot of light? Oh yes, it is! This experience was not only about swimming with orcas, it was also about the cold, the dark Arctic, about a part of the world otherwise you would never go. An incredible and extreme adventure, which everybody should experience. But be aware, it involves a lot of trouble, cold, and suffering to get this experience of a lifetime. :)

#swimwithorcas #orcanorway #orcas #underwaterphotography #arcticfreediving #arcticsnorkel #encounters2022 #bookwithbarna

00:00 Intro
00: 27 Arrival
00:48 Preparations
01:19 Whales
02:04 Snow and dark
02:36 Last day with orcas
03:36 In the water
05:14 Feeding frenzy