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Swimming With Orcas in Norway (18 photos)

Olivier Morin, a photographer with Agence France-Presse, recently visited northern Norway to spend some time whale-watching and swimming in a frigid fjord with a group of orcas as they hunted for herring. The Reisafjorden region near the city of Tromso remains a “winter playground” for these whales, even as they are pushed farther north every year because warming waters force the herring ever northward in search of spawning areas that are the right temperature—37 degrees Fahrenheit (3 degrees Celsius). Although the orca population in the region is thriving at the moment, Norwegian authorities are considering some regulations to further protect the whales.