ANCHORAGE DAILY NEWS

KETCHIKAN, Alaska (AP) - Whale researchers say it was highly unusual for a killer whale to bump a 12-year-old boy splashing in shallow water near Ketchikan.

Ellis Miller found himself face-to-face with an orca charging at him in 4 feet of water Saturday in Helm Bay. The animal, estimated to be more than 25 feet long, bumped but did not bite him.

"I looked underwater and there was this huge head right in front of me," Ellis told the Ketchikan Daily News.

Biologists said whale may have been curious or it may have aborted an attack.

"If it had wanted to take him, it would have," said Gary Freitag, volunteer coordinator with the National Marine Fisheries Service's Marine Mammal Stranded Network.

"I suspect that the whale that approached thought he was a harbor seal splashing," said John Ford, a researcher of killer whales with the Canadian Department of Fisheries and Oceans' Pacific Biological Station in Nanaimo, British Columbia.

"He's about the first person I know of that's actually been approached and touched," said Craig Matkin, a Homer-based marine biologist and co-director of the North Gulf Oceanic Society.

There has never been a documented fatal killer whale attack on a human. The only relatively well-documented bite was one suffered by a surfer in California in the early 1970s.

Saturday was calm and sunny as the Miller family joined Ron and Kathy Arntzen in an outing at a U.S. Forest Service cabin. Ellis' parents, Kevin and Nettie Miller, were aboard their boat at the dock and Ron Arntzen was on another nearby boat.

Kathy Arntzen kayaked to a beach on an island about 75 yards away from the dock. Ellis Miller followed a few minutes later, swimming across the flat water with swim fins and a kick board.

At the island, Ellis dove underwater and splashed near the beach while Kathy Arntzen stood nearby in knee-to waist-deep water.

As he swam underwater, Ellis said, he heard a "boom" that sounded like a gun.

"I heard that one big sound twice and I thought that, well, maybe the guy just missed his first shot," Ellis said.

He asked Kathy Arntzen whether she heard it. Arntzen replied she'd heard something, but just barely.

Ellis stood up in water about chest high. Arntzen said she was stunned to see a dorsal fin more than 6 feet tall break the water's surface a few yards behind Ellis.

The orca, Arntzen said, dwarfed the boy. She began to yell.

Over on the boat, Kevin Miller could see the killer whale heading toward his son.

"Seeing (Ellis) swimming over there and seeing this pressure wave and this fin, this huge fin come up right behind him, it was just amazing," he said.

Ellis turned and saw the dorsal fin. Then he was underwater facing the whale's head.

"I turned around, HUH! And it's there," he said.

FULL STORY

ROFL, I hope the kid isnt tramuatized

The kid shouldn't have been doing a seal impression in an Orca's buffet line.

Personaly I would love to swim with the Orca/killer whale. One of the most friendly whales in the ocean. Off the vancouver coast one adopted a boat/family and would not leave them.

It would not let them leave. Awwwww how sweet.

dinner time, or so the whale thought.

Free Willy!!!!!!!!!

free willy!

Free Willy oh that's good. That would have been scary to come face to face with!

HAHAHAHAHA If that had have happened to me I would have almost wet myself LOL

I know that I would be

Iw ould have been screaming and crying for a while.. then i would laugh like nuts, and tell EVERYONE how awesome it was!

That will be something to remember.

The kid is one extremely lucky child. He sure will remember it forever.

Scary, yet cool.

That would have been terrifying

Yes, and it has given me another reason to hate whales.

What?! Whales are wonderful creatures

I would have Shat myself

You know...I was wondering, maybe that whale thought the boy was in distress and he was high-tailing it over there to possibly help. It seems he could have killed the boy if he wanted to...