Restoring Liberty’s Viral “Witty Otter” Video: The Rest of the Story and New Footage

The “Alaska Killer Whales vs. Witty Otter” video that Restoring Liberty broke two weeks ago has now gone viral, getting almost 1,000,000 views at the time of this writing. When we posted the video – put together by my son Jacob – we included a short but incomplete narrative of what happened.

Many major news outlets have picked up the story including Yahoo.com, The Blaze, the Daily Mail, and other sites. We’ve received a number of inquiries seeking more details on what happened with the otter, her baby and the killer whales in Tutka Bay last month. Interview requests are pouring in from Anderson Cooper, the Today Show, Fox affiliates, and other stations.

Here’s the original video:

So, this evening, I called my friend, Dusty Harpole, the Alaskan who filmed the sea otter/killer whale encounter, and he filled me in on the “rest of the story.”

Dusty told me that he and his friend were out black bear hunting in early October. They had borrowed a boat from Charlie Largent (another good friend and a major 2010 US Senate campaign volunteer) for the trip and were cruising from Jakolof Bay into Tutka Bay, Alaska. Although Dusty is an accomplished Alaskan hunter, having taken a number of trophy bears – including a ten foot plus brown bear just this past spring – he and his friend hadn’t had much excitement on this outing. In fact, they had only sighted one bear the entire trip. But as they entered Tutka Bay, things got exciting real fast.

First, they saw a bunch of killer whales – also known as orcas – splashing around the entrance of the bay. As Dusty maneuvered his boat further into the bay, the killer whales actually began to approach the boat. Dusty slowed and then stopped the boat, and the orcas continued to play nearby. Each time that Dusty attempted to leave, the orcas would follow the boat.

So, enjoying the playful killer whales, Dusty eventually just let the boat drift. After thirty minutes or so, the boat, with the orcas still alongside, drifted into the mother otter that is the subject of the viral video.

The mother otter was floating on her back with her baby on her stomach about twenty-five yards from the boat. The killer whales began to circle the mother and her baby. They did this for some time. The mother otter, with the baby clinging to her stomach, would place her head under water to watch the orcas.

Click HERE for the rest of the story and the new footage of the killer whale hitting the mother and baby otters with its tail.