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Interestingly, there's almost no documentation of orcas attacking humans in the wild: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orca_attack https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Or

Interestingly, there's almost no documentation of orcas attacking humans in the wild: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orca_attack https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orca_attack . While there seem to be some cases of attacking boats, wikipedia lists only a single known instance of a human being bitten by a wild orca. It's actually rather surprising, considering they are an apex predator with a highly varied diet. Though it's said most attacks by sharks are a case of mistaken identity, and with better intelligence and echolocation an orca is far less likely to make that mistake.

whoopdedo 4y ago
Randall Munroe of the New York Times wrote about this recently in a column[1] comparing orcas and sharks. He quoted a marine biologist who attributed the rarity of attacks to infrequent encounters between humans and orcas. They don't tend to hang around places where people are swimming. [1] https://www.nytimes.com/2022/08/15/science/sharks-killer-whales-swimming.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare https://www.nytimes.com/2022/08/15/science/sharks-killer-wha...
- jprd 4y ago
  Seeing "Randall Munroe of the New York Times" and not, "The Internet's own, Randall Munroe, of xkcd.com fame" was weird and wonderful all at once :D
- failTide 4y ago
  People paddle with the Orcas every day in the PNW - they have plenty of opportunities to attack humans.
- bmitc 4y ago
  That's not really true. Orcas are one of the most widespread species and are almost always associated with coasts. The reason for difference of attacks is biology and intelligence. Sharks are basically one big system of sensors, and they attack basically anything that triggers those sensors. Orcas have a much, much higher intelligence (on the level of humans, in my opinion), and so they probably see humans the same way we see sloths. That is, we're curious about them, but they would make for a nasty and rather pointless meal. Orcas also have generational memory, so for certain pods, humans are probably known to them and they'd rather not directly engage.

whoopdedo 4y ago

Randall Munroe of the New York Times wrote about this recently in a column[1] comparing orcas and sharks. He quoted a marine biologist who attributed the rarity of attacks to infrequent encounters between humans and orcas. They don't tend to hang around places where people are swimming. [1] https://www.nytimes.com/2022/08/15/science/sharks-killer-whales-swimming.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare https://www.nytimes.com/2022/08/15/science/sharks-killer-wha...

jprd 4y ago
Seeing "Randall Munroe of the New York Times" and not, "The Internet's own, Randall Munroe, of xkcd.com fame" was weird and wonderful all at once :D
failTide 4y ago
People paddle with the Orcas every day in the PNW - they have plenty of opportunities to attack humans.
bmitc 4y ago
That's not really true. Orcas are one of the most widespread species and are almost always associated with coasts. The reason for difference of attacks is biology and intelligence. Sharks are basically one big system of sensors, and they attack basically anything that triggers those sensors. Orcas have a much, much higher intelligence (on the level of humans, in my opinion), and so they probably see humans the same way we see sloths. That is, we're curious about them, but they would make for a nasty and rather pointless meal. Orcas also have generational memory, so for certain pods, humans are probably known to them and they'd rather not directly engage.