![]() ![]() The trend lasted a few months, and had fizzled out within a year. Within weeks, individuals in two other pods also began wearing fish hats. In 1987, a female orca in the Pacific waters off the coast of North America was spotted sporting a dead salmon on her head. The scientific literature is rife with anecdotes and research showing high cognition, playfulness and sociality in the species known as Orcinus orca - and examples of what appear to be the cultural transmission of new behaviors, either via teaching or observation. Instead, she thinks the animals are engaging with boats because the vessels are “either making an interesting vibration or sound, or maybe it’s the way the water moves past the keels that is intriguing to these animals.” “So, I just don’t really see it as an agonistic activity I just don’t see it going down like that,” said Giles, who has studied killer whales in the Pacific Ocean, Puget Sound and the Salish Sea for nearly 20 years. ![]() The only deaths have occurred in marine parks and aquariums, where animals taken from the wild and forced to perform for humans in small tanks have attacked their trainers. There are no verified instances of orcas killing humans in the wild. She noted that despite the long history of orcas being hunted by whalers - and more recently marine parks - these top ocean predators have typically demonstrated a lack of aggression toward humans. “That just doesn’t sit right with me,” said Deborah Giles, an orca researcher at the University of Washington, Seattle, and director of Wild Orca, a Washington-based conservation research organization. The Moby-Dick “revenge” narrative for the behavior is highly unlikely, they say. Others wonder if the unusually large pods of multi-ton cetaceans now appearing off the coasts of San Francisco, Monterey and Nantucket, Mass., may soon follow suit.ĭespite such rampant speculation on social media, most killer whale scientists have offered a very different interpretation. The seemingly militant whales have also won over a legion of adoring fans - many transfixed by the notion that the mammals are targeting rich people, and exacting revenge for all the wrongs humanity has waged on their species and their ocean home. Three vessels have been so badly mauled, they’ve sunk.Īs the encounters continue, shaky video captured by thrilled and fearful seafarers has ignited a global internet sensation, while experts have struggled to explain the behavior and its timing. In most cases, the financial and structural damage has ranged from minimal to moderate: Boats have been spun and pushed, while rudders have been smashed and destroyed. Since then, there have been more than 500 reports of orca encounters off the Iberian peninsula. LOS ANGELES - The attacks started suddenly and inexplicably in the spring of 2020 - pods of endangered killer whales began ramming yachts and fishing boats in European waters, pushing some off course and imperiling others. ![]()
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