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I think these are attacks by a population that's starving to death, surrounded by deafening noise (and remember, their primary sense is hearing) and poisoned by
by stupendousyappi 6y ago
I think these are attacks by a population that's starving to death, surrounded by deafening noise (and remember, their primary sense is hearing) and poisoned by heavy metals accumulating in the food chain. I think they understand that humans and boats are responsible for the stress they're experiencing, and are attacking smaller boats that they think they can sink in desperation or anger, similar to how Tilikum snapped one day and killed Dawn Brancheau.
The southern residents of the Pacific Northwest are the most studied population of wild of orcas in the world (actually, they're probably the most studied population of wild mammals). They seem to have a lot of similarities to the Gibraltar orcas- both seem to eat fish exclusively, and in fact heavily specialize in one large fish species (Chinook salmon for the southern residents, bluefin tuna for the Gibraltar orcas). Both populations appear heavily stressed due to human activity, especially food loss due to fishing, and both have experienced a crash in successful pregnancies. In the southern residents, two years ago this led to Talequah making news by carrying her dead calf for two weeks over hundreds of miles, seemingly in mourning. I think these attacks are also basically emotional and based on a correct general understanding of how boats are affecting them, and not especially different from what humans would do in a similar situation.
- bzb5 6y agoIn your first paragraph, you might be humanising the beasts quite too much.
- TeaDrunk 6y agoOrcas are known to be highly intelligent and are also known to be able to operate on a pretty decent level of thinking. Seeing boats take your food while you starve is not a difficult conclusion to draw that the boats are total assholes who need to be taught a lesson.
- HaloZero 6y agoI remember learning Humpbacks work to deny Orcas meals sometimes. I can totally imagine Orcas connecting the dots to attack smaller boats. If anything it could just be stress + source of noise == bad. https://www.nationalgeographic.com/news/2016/08/humpback-whales-save-animals-killer-whales-explained/ https://www.nationalgeographic.com/news/2016/08/humpback-wha...
- tpmx 6y agoHere's another interesting piece: https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/male-orca-and-its-mother-worked-together-kill-newborn-calf-180968590/ https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/male-orca-and-its-... A young male orca and its mother kills a orca baby by drowning it during four hours, with the baby orca's mother nearby. The researchers are guessing they did it so that the other mother orca that had just had its baby killed could be impregnated by the young male orca, thereby making sure that its genetics would be spread.
- lawnchair_larry 6y agoWhy are humans that catch the food they need to survive total assholes, but the oracs who need to catch the food they need to survive are not total assholes?
- daseiner1 6y agoif orcas were successfully depriving us of food rather than the other way around, we would view them as assholes
- ncallaway 6y agoWhy do you think that? What part of the paragraph? What aspect is over-humanized?
- stupendousyappi 6y agoUnfortunately, this is a sample size of 1, so it's hard to know what's different about this pod versus all the other pods that have interacted frequently with boats without attacking them. But we do know that this population is much more stressed by human behavior than most orca populations.
- JeremyBanks 6y agoGo away, troll
- filleduchaos 6y agoAnd you might be bestialising the orcas quite too much.
- iancmceachern 6y agoBeasts? Perhaps you are demonizing them too much.
- csomar 6y agoI used to have two dogs. They would check if they were given equal amounts of food and would protest otherwise. Seems logical that Orcas, a much more intelligent animal, would understand that the boats are eating their food.
- ryanhuff 6y agoWould the dog that was given more food protest?
- NeutronStar 6y agoIf you denied food to both would they protest?
- undersuit 6y agoMine do the next day when I correct the imbalance.
- saiya-jin 6y agoWould an employee that is given higher salary then rest of the team protest?
- salawat 6y agoAs someone who regularly prods Juniors to see what they're making in case they get taken for rides like I did, I hope I'm not in the minority of saying yes; that's getting a bit beyond the issue at matter though as I'm pretty sure that the Orca were not consulted as to how they thought it would be most fair to divide up the spoils of the natural world.
- csomar 6y agoNo. If there is a big piece of meat, he'll take it and run away.
- nitrogen 6y agoSomeone once described the sound small boats make underwater as "snakes" or "parsel tongue" to me after being underwater when a boat happened to pass by. My first reaction was, "Wow, fish must hate us."
- sdfjkl 6y agoPropellers are pretty noisy, even when they're not singing (a common flaw - look it up). As divers, we appreciate the warning, but also known how far this noise carries even to our human ears, which are poorly attuned to the environment.
- HumblyTossed 6y agoWhy is it so hard for humans to accept that other animals might have feelings?
- JJMcJ 6y agoEspecially as emotions are really physical states. The "I feel sad/happy/disgusted" is a verbal layer on top of the physical response.
- drak0n1c 6y agoAnimals in general, whether Humans or Orcas, don't grant members of other species special understanding or consideration and are usually very ruthless. It's the biological norm, and not unique to humanity. Humans are unique in that we do hesitate before killing and eating another species' babies, and we prefer not to play with our prey before the kill. That exceptionalism only really applies to in-person encounters. If it's out of sight, out of mind, then we're as indifferent as any other.
- marci 6y ago> Humans are unique in that we do hesitate before killing and eating another species' babies, and we prefer not to play with our prey before the kill. It's only in places where you have the luxury. Humans still eat veal. Male baby chick are still being shredded alive. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chick_culling https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chick_culling The meat industry hasn't been completely taken over by robots yet. Humans are still doing the killing, especially with calves. Tribes that heavily rely on hunt won't hesitate much either. Regarding playing with our prey, we elevated it to sport and culture (Fox hunting for example). Not even for sustenance, just entertainment.
- reducesuffering 6y ago> Animals in general, whether Humans or Orcas, don't grant members of other species special understanding or consideration and are usually very ruthless. Since this is a thread about Orcas, Orcas are extremely friendly to humans and there are no reported human deaths from wild orcas. There's countless videos you can observe yourself of them playing with kayakers, boats, or even kids scratching the orca's tongue. Hardly would consider that "very ruthless."
- rmtech 6y agoThey may perceive boats as an enemy trying to compete for food resources (which is kind of true), but this is a lot of speculation. Imagine aliens who didn't understand human politics trying to tell the difference between fireworks and anti-aircraft fire.
- deleted 6y ago[deleted]
- dwd 6y agoI think "had enough" is easily the most plausible reason, and it's time we acknowledged that we don't have a monopoly on intelligence, feelings or personality. We need to recognition the message and do something about what we are doing to their environment.
- newsclues 6y agoPossible effects of Naval nuclear weapons testing over time?
- stupendousyappi 6y agoIn the Strait of Gibraltar?
- emmelaich 6y agoYeah, not nuclear but the Straits would be a very noisy place.
- throwawaysea 6y agoVisiting the whale museums and community-based orca tracking efforts in the Pacific Northwest has made me feel much more connected to the issues in our marine environment, which are easy to ignore because they are hidden from plain view. These issues are also more painful when it concerns orcas, because of how intelligent, social, and like us they are. Food is certainly a problem, and the one that gets the most attention. But there are significant issues in noise pollution as well. For example, if you listen to recordings of sounds in the Puget Sound / Salish Sea, you'll be stunned at just how loud boat traffic noise can be (https://vimeo.com/247051394 https://vimeo.com/247051394). I imagine this is just plainly torturous to animals, particularly social ones that communicate through vocalizations. There's also the risk of sonar testing (https://www.cbsnews.com/news/orca-endangered-killer-whale-risk-us-navy/ https://www.cbsnews.com/news/orca-endangered-killer-whale-ri...). You can learn more about this in the documentary "Sonic Sea" (https://www.sonicsea.org/ https://www.sonicsea.org/). Other issues include reduced oxygen levels in the Puget Sound (https://ecology.wa.gov/Water-Shorelines/Puget-Sound/Helping-Puget-Sound/Reducing-Puget-Sound-nutrients/Nutrient-pollution-studies https://ecology.wa.gov/Water-Shorelines/Puget-Sound/Helping-...), stormwater runoff pollution from dense sources like Seattle (https://komonews.com/news/local/new-project-to-tackle-puget-sounds-growing-polluted-stormwater https://komonews.com/news/local/new-project-to-tackle-puget-...), opioids and other pollutants from sewage (https://kuow.org/stories/relaxed-mussels-opioids-found-puget-sound-shellfish-hint-crisis/ https://kuow.org/stories/relaxed-mussels-opioids-found-puget...), etc. The number of issues impacting our marine ecosystem is staggering and poorly understood. On the bright side, I want to add that Tahlequah/J35 just recently gave birth to a new calf, J57. Fingers crossed for a healthy pod! News article at https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2020/09/08/tahlequah-orca-southern-resident-killer-whale-gives-birth/5747567002/ https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2020/09/08/tahleq... and photos at https://www.whaleresearch.com/j57 https://www.whaleresearch.com/j57