Video: Pod of killer whales circle North Sea vessel

The crew of the Grampian Protector filmed the whales.

The footage was filmed 155 nautical miles north east off Aberdeen by chief officer Graeme Hately on board the Grampian Protector.

Graeme estimates there were up to 30 orcas in the area at the time and, based on their behaviour, believes they were hunting for shoals of fish.

One of the frames, taken underwater using a GoPro camera attached to a buoy and a weight, briefly shows a mother and a baby swim past the side of his vessel.

And posting under his YouTube username, Bigwavemaster1, he has also recorded other marine events such as a giant wave hitting a ship which has attracted more than nine million views.

Graeme, 49, from Awsworth, Nottinghamshire, has worked in the industry for 24 years, and has spent the last 11 on the ship.

He said: “I was filming them for about four hours. We saw them in the distance and the second mate saw them too and started heading towards them.

“Then we were in among them for about four hours. I had three cameras on the go, for us it’s a very rare sight.

“We normally see the, about once or twice a year, then for years we see nothing, they come in fits and bursts.

“We took the boat ahead of them and hoped that the flashing light on the camera would attract them closer.

“I assume they were hunting a shoal of fish as they were splashing their tails a lot. When you see them jumping, they were doing it in unison, they all seemed to be coordinated with each other.

“The crew were really impressed by it. Everyone who could be on deck was on deck watching them.”