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Orca rams into yacht near Scotland, suggesting the behavior may be spreading

smithsonianmag.com

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Re: Orca rams into yacht near Scotland, suggesting the behavior may be spreading

#61

Post by serf »

SketchySeaBeast wrote: post #2

While I don't much care about the yachts and find the fact that the behaviour is spreading fascinating, my fear out of all this is people will start hurting the whales to try to get them to stop.

there is bound to be some kind of response if this remains a trend; and given that some of these boats are having their fin/bulb keels seemingly targeted by these animals means that the crews of the boats are in some greater level of mortal peril than is already provided by the hobby..

I feel bad for the animals, but sailing doesn't seem to be going anywhere as a global interest and boats produced are getting to be more and more fragile in the search for performance. I imagine that it's only a matter of time until there will be a violent reaction when a crew feels that they're in mortal danger -- all I can hope for is that it produces a recognition of danger that also sweeps through the Orca community as a trend and they start to avoid yachts for the sake of both parties.

When I watch the videos I just kind of think it's like watching a cat scratching themselves and rubbing up against anything with an edge on my desk. Wholly benign behavior that is a detriment simply due to their scale compared to us.

Re: Orca rams into yacht near Scotland, suggesting the behavior may be spreading

#62

Post by gcanyon »

This is not the first time orcas have shown an awareness of us in boats: through the second half of the 1800s orcas in Australia actually helped whalers hunt baleen whales: herding the prey, and even grabbing ropes in their mouths to help haul, in exchange for the most valuable (to them) parts of the carcasses.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Killer_whales_of_Eden,_New_Sou...

Old Tom, one of the most helpful orcas, died in 1930. His skeleton is on display at a museum, and the wear marks from the ropes are visible on his teeth.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Old_Tom_(orca)

Re: Orca rams into yacht near Scotland, suggesting the behavior may be spreading

#63

Post by colechristensen »

swid wrote: post #15

This American Life just did a segment where the experts were very skeptical of both the theories presented in this article - that the first encounters near Spain were caused by a traumatic event of a matriarch, and also that orca pods would communicate with each other to spread the behavior. The theory presented in that segment was the first orcas are sort of like rowdy teenagers participating in a fad, and the newer…

Clearly orcas have culture that spreads. It’s a bit silly to speculate about patient zero being a matriarch as there’s zero evidence, likewise until a mechanism of communication is known saying it was or was not communicated between pods without evidence isn’t reasonable.

Re: Orca rams into yacht near Scotland, suggesting the behavior may be spreading

#65

Post by zeroonetwothree »

anigbrowl wrote: post #54
swid wrote: post #15

This American Life just did a segment where the experts were very skeptical of both the theories presented in this article - that the first encounters near Spain were caused by a traumatic event of a matriarch, and also that orca pods would communicate with each other to spread the behavior. The theory presented in that segment was the first orcas are sort of like rowdy teenagers participating in a fad, and the newer…

something of a coincidence Orcas do go in for fads (look up 'orca salmon hats') but experts oftentimes dismiss things as coincidence because they don't have a theory and don't want to look stupid by speculating. When I was growing up reports of ball lightning were dismissed as hallucinations or optical illusions until video and spectrographic technology advanced sufficiently to capture the phenomenon: https://en.wiki…

That link says: “Owing to the lack of reproducible data, the existence of ball lightning as a distinct physical phenomenon remains unproven”

Re: Orca rams into yacht near Scotland, suggesting the behavior may be spreading

#66

Post by echelon »

elorant wrote: post #37
echelon wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Orcas haven't been ramming boats for decades. Now, all of a sudden, we're seeing the behavior crop up all over the place. This is new behavior that is being communicated and taught. Imagine when they discover that there are calorie sources aboard the ships. Orcas are known to eat terrestrial mammals such as swimming deer and moose. They've been observed hunting swimming dogs.

If they wanted to eat humans they had plenty of chances. Incidents where an orca attacked a human are rare, with the notable exception of orcas in captivity. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orca_attacks

> If they wanted to eat humans they had plenty of chances.

Have they, though? Captive orcas aren't opportunistically hunting with their pod, and they're constantly kept fed. Their behaviors are reinforced.

Apart from captivity, human swimmers seldom interact in the wild.

Absence of evidence is not evidence of absence.

Orcas eat land mammals, and we have plenty of evidence for that.

Re: Orca rams into yacht near Scotland, suggesting the behavior may be spreading

#68

Post by ceejayoz »

mcpackieh wrote: post #53

I've never believed that orcas have always left humans alone. I think they began leaving humans alone when commercial whaling took off and they witnessed first hand how dangerous humans can be to whales. Maybe that generational memory is now fading. Yeah I know the argument that humans are too bony and taste bad, but how would they know we taste bad if they never even take a nibble to taste test us? These are very in…

> These are very intelligent mammals, they should be curious about how we taste.

Maybe they're intelligent enough to recognize our intelligence, and don't want to attack other intelligent beings?

Re: Orca rams into yacht near Scotland, suggesting the behavior may be spreading

#69

Post by Scarblac »

fasthands9 wrote: post #36
koheripbal wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This comment is strange. Sperm whale from Moby dick's era routinely flight back when harpooned. Today's killer whale behavior is clearly new, and nearly the only violent behavior seen in any whale in a hundred years. .. and with multiple recent reports, it is a new trend.

I'm skeptical it is new. An orca ran into a boat causing no injuries or real damage. If this had happened 10 years ago would it have been reported in any way - either on the news or by a database? I think an easier explanation is someone started tracking this and now boat owners know to report it, because they have heard that someone is tracking it. There is now an Orca Reporting form: https://www.theca.org.uk/orcas/…

It got in the news in 2020 when it happened near Gibraltar; since then it has been reported in the news many times, 250 attacks near Gibraltar have been reported.

And now last week one near Scotland, and this one this week.

Surely if it happened all the time, and it was in the news for so long, it would have been noticed and reported from all over the world?

Re: Orca rams into yacht near Scotland, suggesting the behavior may be spreading

#70

Post by mmanfrin »

SketchySeaBeast wrote: post #2

While I don't much care about the yachts and find the fact that the behaviour is spreading fascinating, my fear out of all this is people will start hurting the whales to try to get them to stop.

I totally agree. There's a part of me going 'hell yeah go orcas', and another part knowing that in a war, humans are gonna win, and I don't like what that means for orcas.
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