Orcas sinking ships!!!
- Thread starter LotusBud
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I read that article today. I wonder what's prompting them to feel so aggressive. I don't think they're a species that his hunted. Maybe they feel that their territory is being invaded.
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Orcas have been attacking yachts off Spain for some time now. Why hasn't been made clear. Some think it has to do with injuries from rudders which is why the Orcas have targeted the rudders of these boats. Another thought suggested that it was related to the wakes created by engines being something they enjoyed and when they were off the orcas get pissed LoLz - it's a mystery so far.
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I don't know that I blame them either, but I don't think I want to see people attacked and maybe killed either.
Of course not. I don't believe they killed anyone.
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They're very intelligent animals. I'm sure they are reacting to what they believe is an offense.
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I agree. I see the possibility of it happening though. It's a difficult situation.
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You know that was based on a real incident involving the Essex and a whale dubbed Moca Dick (or something close to it) Several whales in the end where attacking vessels in what was believe to be acts of revenge. Great book btw.
Yes, I did know this. It is on my list of top 10 great books of all time
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Maybe a little something added:
Scientists don’t know for sure why the orcas are targeting vessels, but they have urged onlookers to to the creatures, and especially to refrain from framing their actions as retaliation, reports the ’s Dino Grandoni.
“We believe this narrative inappropriately projects human motivations onto these whales, and we are concerned that perpetuating it will lead to punitive responses by mariners or managers,” a group of 35 scientists wrote in an this August.
Orcas are highly social animals, and in the past, they have periodically adopted short-lived fads, such as wearing on their heads like hats. While the vessel strikes are persisting longer than a typical fad, they might disappear just as quickly as they began, the scientists wrote. But overall, it appears unlikely the creatures are behaving maliciously or seeking revenge on humans.
“I just don’t really see it as an agonistic activity,” said , a marine biologist at the University of Washington and director of the conservation research organization Wild Orca, to the ’ Susanne Rust earlier this year.
So far, the behavior has mostly been isolated to the group inhabiting the waters off the Iberian peninsula—though, this summer, did occur more than 2,000 miles away near Scotland.
One theory scientists have for the behavior is that orcas are simply having fun—they see boat rudders, then use their noses to push them until they snap.
“They’re pushing, pushing, pushing—boom! It’s a game,” , a scientist who leads the marine research group Conservation, Information and Research on Cetaceans (CIRCE), told ’s Sophie Hardach in June. “Imagine a kid of 6, 7 years, with a weight of three tonnes. That’s it, nothing less, nothing more. If they wanted to wreck the boat, they would break it in ten minutes’ time.”
Another theory is that a female orca within the group named White Gladis may be acting out because of a past traumatic run-in with a vessel. Perhaps, then, the behavior is catching on among juveniles, because they “look up to these very important females in the pod,” in orcas’ , as , a biologist at the University of Aveiro in Portugal and a member of the Atlantic Orca Working Group, said to ’s Jacopo Prisco in June.
Still, some scientists point out that we, as humans, cannot presume to know the orcas’ motivation. And any attempts to guess are just that: guesswork.
“Nobody knows why this is happening,” , director of marine mammal research at the University of British Columbia in Canada, told earlier this year. “My idea, or what anyone would give you, is informed speculation. It is a total mystery, unprecedented.”
Scientists don’t know for sure why the orcas are targeting vessels, but they have urged onlookers to to the creatures, and especially to refrain from framing their actions as retaliation, reports the ’s Dino Grandoni.
“We believe this narrative inappropriately projects human motivations onto these whales, and we are concerned that perpetuating it will lead to punitive responses by mariners or managers,” a group of 35 scientists wrote in an this August.
Orcas are highly social animals, and in the past, they have periodically adopted short-lived fads, such as wearing on their heads like hats. While the vessel strikes are persisting longer than a typical fad, they might disappear just as quickly as they began, the scientists wrote. But overall, it appears unlikely the creatures are behaving maliciously or seeking revenge on humans.
“I just don’t really see it as an agonistic activity,” said , a marine biologist at the University of Washington and director of the conservation research organization Wild Orca, to the ’ Susanne Rust earlier this year.
So far, the behavior has mostly been isolated to the group inhabiting the waters off the Iberian peninsula—though, this summer, did occur more than 2,000 miles away near Scotland.
One theory scientists have for the behavior is that orcas are simply having fun—they see boat rudders, then use their noses to push them until they snap.
“They’re pushing, pushing, pushing—boom! It’s a game,” , a scientist who leads the marine research group Conservation, Information and Research on Cetaceans (CIRCE), told ’s Sophie Hardach in June. “Imagine a kid of 6, 7 years, with a weight of three tonnes. That’s it, nothing less, nothing more. If they wanted to wreck the boat, they would break it in ten minutes’ time.”
Another theory is that a female orca within the group named White Gladis may be acting out because of a past traumatic run-in with a vessel. Perhaps, then, the behavior is catching on among juveniles, because they “look up to these very important females in the pod,” in orcas’ , as , a biologist at the University of Aveiro in Portugal and a member of the Atlantic Orca Working Group, said to ’s Jacopo Prisco in June.
Still, some scientists point out that we, as humans, cannot presume to know the orcas’ motivation. And any attempts to guess are just that: guesswork.
“Nobody knows why this is happening,” , director of marine mammal research at the University of British Columbia in Canada, told earlier this year. “My idea, or what anyone would give you, is informed speculation. It is a total mystery, unprecedented.”
