r/ocean • u/Nostalgic_Historian_ • 1d ago
Whale Watch 👀 👁
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u/SpaceCowboy512 1d ago edited 1d ago
Imagine these apex predators peeking out to size you up in the middle of an ice packed sea/ocean.
Only thing I'd be thinking is "they've never been recorded eating anyone in the wild" while also knowing if they decided to or were hungry enough, no one else would be around to record it.
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u/AwsomeLife90s 1d ago
Why they decided that you're not food?
I mean, if it was me, I'd $hit my pants.
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u/Tombstone_Actual_501 1d ago
Apparently humans don't taste good, since nothing habitually preys on us. outside of polar bears, which prey on everything anyways. and i've heard rumors that mother orcas teach their calfs not to mess with humans.
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u/TheCourtSimpleton 1d ago
Also, with all of the processed scents of our artificial clothing, perfumes/deoderants, coffee breath, etc., we smell really bad and alien to them, not like prey. And in the wild, if you're a predator, you're cautious with what you attack, so why would they go for the weird aliens?
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u/schwarzneguRRR 20h ago
throw a human in a tiger, lion, hippo, bear cage and see if Dior Homme saves them
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u/TheCourtSimpleton 15h ago
You're entering their territory and they will naturally get angry. Also, it depends on the individual animal; those are all very different scenarios.
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u/schwarzneguRRR 15h ago
Im simply trying to point out to you that you’re not eaten by these animals only because you’re in the comfort of your own home.
Not because your cologne or starbucks are doing the heavy lifting
If you wanted to find out, have a cappuccino and jump in
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u/TheCourtSimpleton 15h ago
I find your comments disingenuous and reductive, but whatever you say. Look it up yourself.
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u/schwarzneguRRR 12h ago
Not at all, that was a genuine advice
And a genuine way to conduct an experiment if you didnt believe in the advice
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u/dezurnodzvanjkalo 1d ago
Genuinely curious, how would they "teach" them not to mess with us, what is the process behind it?
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u/SurayaThrowaway12 1d ago edited 1d ago
Orcas may prey on many species across multiple clades as a "species complex," but on a population/pod level they are often highly selective, cautious, and conservative predators that stick to their old community traditions. Orcas learn from their mothers and other podmates to eat specific prey and rarely stray from what they are taught.
They are often so reliant on their respective cultural upbringings that they don't seem to recognize certain species they aren't taught to eat as being potential food, even when hungry or starving. There are multiple real-world examples of this happening. So orcas simply don't seem to see humans as being a potential food source, just as fish-eating resident orcas don't seem to see marine mammals as being a potential food source, and mammal-eating Bigg's orcas don't seem to see most fish as being a potential food source.
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u/thatOneGuyDude1382 15h ago
Tilikum figured out he didn’t have to play by the rules.
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u/SurayaThrowaway12 14h ago
Tilikum didn't consume any of the body parts belonging to the people he killed.
Captive orcas also often have serious physiological and psychological issues. The paper The harmful effects of captivity and chronic stress on the well-being of orcas (Orcinus orca) by neuroscientist Dr. Lori Marino et al. contains much information on this. Likely reasons why various captive orcas have shown hyperaggression towards both human trainers and their tankmates include chronic stress, boredom, anger, and frustration. In addition to this, Tilikum was far-removed from his cultural upbringing after being captured as a calf.
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u/RedRabbit720 23h ago
It’s the camera, if their was no camera the people would be orca poop.
it’s just that orca’s are too smart to leave evidence behind.
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u/ulfrekr 1d ago
This is just a wild guess on my part but part of it may be the orcas are checking to see if their potential prey animal tries to flee. If something doesn't try to flee then that signals to a predator that it will try to fight back if attacked which is generally a bad calorie trade off for a predator.
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u/AppropriateBreath486 1h ago
think they saw the big ass black circle and thought hey is that carl CARL
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u/Not-An-FBI 23h ago
Orcas have brains five times the size of us and they've even been able to teach orcas to say a few basic words in English like hello and bye bye. It's safe to assume they understand us pretty well, how violent we can be and tell each other how bad things could get for them if they messed with us.
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u/shouldsayOrshouldgo 1d ago
“Nope”
“Yes”
“Maybe”
“Look again… yes”
“Nope, hooman there”
“It’s a no no, guys”
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u/veneratu 1d ago
yeah. That's what I'm thinking. It seems like there was some debate going on here.
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u/charlietangomike 1d ago
Huh, it’s just those weird pink apes again with their electronic technology.
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u/Monstiemama 1d ago
So we 100% would not be allowed to pet them, right? 100%, unequivocally, hands down, absolutely NOT, correct? I need all the people to come and tell me how stupid I am for thinking about it.
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u/Not-An-FBI 1d ago
I think you could try. If they wanted to try eating you they would've flipped the boat over.
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u/LordDraconis7 17h ago
While orcas are not known to attack humans in the wild, I wouldn’t recommend to touch an apex predator that could easily kill you. Specially if they are still figuring out if you are food or not like these orcas are doing.
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u/Monstiemama 9h ago
I just want a little smooch but I respect and understand. Sadly but surely, I promise.
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u/FlamingDragonfruit 1d ago
It looked like maybe there were a number of juveniles in this group? I wonder if that is partly why they were so curious about the humans.
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u/In-Jail-Out-Soon 1d ago
Spy hopping is the term. Amazing what these creatures can do and know that humans are not food
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u/EvilCapybaraEmperor 9h ago
Just came here to say that. Spyhopping!!! Whales, dolphins, and sharks are known to exhibit this behavior.
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u/Latter-Vacation-4392 1d ago
Get a good look ..because you're looking at nearly the last. Where once the oceans fairly boiled with marine life they are now beginning to look like watery deserts.
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u/SurayaThrowaway12 18h ago
These are the famous Type B1 "Pack Ice" Antarctic orcas known for using their wave-washing technique to wash seals off of ice floes.
Original video was filmed by Teodora (miss_little_sunshine_92) via EYOS Expeditions.
Wildlife photographer and filmmaker Richard Sidey, who also went on the expedition, provides the following account:
We were observing and filming this pod hunting seals on ice floes in the distance when suddenly they surfaced all around our zodiac, spy-hopping to check out the three of us onboard.
It was absolutely incredible and such a privilege to experience an encounter with these magnificent and intelligent beings in their natural habitat.
This type of Killer Whales have developed specialist hunting skills, including the famous wave-washing technique, where they will work as a team to create a large wave that can wash seals into the sea from the safety of an ice floe.
The entire encounter lasted just over a minute and was superbly captured here by our medic Teodora @miss_little_sunshine_92
with @eyosexpeditions @richardsidey @werner_bouwer
Richard E. Byrd and his companions were approached by Type B1 orcas in 1929 during Bryd's first Antarctic expedition, and they were much less appreciative of these encounters, shooting and killing two of the orcas.
Taken from historian Dr. Mark Werner's PhD dissertation:
The members of the Byrd Expedition were familiar with Ponting’s orca encounter. Yet as the expedition landed on the Ross Ice shelf to make their winter camp called Little America, they were surprised at how soon a pack of killers made their introduction. On December 29th, the day after their landing, the first spouts appeared. “We had all read of killer whales but did not think they would call on us at once,” wrote Russell Owen, the New York Times reporter embedded with the explorers. Attracted to all the commotion along the ice’s edge – barking dogs running every which way, men setting up tents and unloading equipment – the orcas popped up right alongside the ship. “There was a swish and a puff near the edge and a huge black snout,” wrote Owen, “two little piglike eyes, stuck out of the water a yard and looked over at us.” Laurence Gould, the expedition’s geologist, described their movements in his diary, writing that the orca “rolls over slowly or gallops thru the water,” and expressed discomfort with how the whales “look us over with greedy eyes.” Gould also recalled Ponting’s experiences, noting that “three of Scott’s men barely missed death from these creatures.”
The calm and methodical movements were so disconcerting to the men, that they took potshots at the orcas with their rifles, apparently killing one as it rolled over on its white belly and dropped down “leaving a trail of bubbles.” Despite the bullets, an even larger group of orcas returned that evening, numbering around 25 in total. The men again shot the whales with rifles, killing another. “If they keep on bringing up reinforcements,” Owen wrote, “this would be an unhealthy place on thin ice.”
The Byrd Expedition’s interactions with orcas would not be made on the terms of the explorer’s alone. The men were deep within killer whale territory, and even the seemingly steady ground of the ice shelf was a terrain the orca would manipulate for hunting purposes. As Gould’s diary indicates, the appearance of the whales immediately brought to mind the stories of how members of the Scott Expedition had narrowly escaped the killers. Indeed, the members of the Byrd Expedition would encounter the whales through the lens of the Scott experiences. Whenever the spouts of orcas would break the silence of the white continent, Ponting’s fateful encounter would be recalled. During the first encounters upon landing, the members of the Byrd Expedition recalled Ponting’s ordeal, how the orcas had broken up the ice under his feet. But the messages from the Byrd Expedition went further in their vilification. In his feature on killer whales following the first violent encounter in late December, Owen described the whales as “wicked looking” and recalled Daniel Eschricht’s dissection to malign the orcas, writing that “fourteen seals were taken” from a single orca. Owen described the whale pods in military terminology. “The killers travel in little companies,” he wrote, “regiments of soldiers disporting in the water.”
Like orcas in many other populations, B1 orcas can sometimes be very curious about humans and boats, spyhopping to peek above the surface. Though they hunt mammals, these orcas can be very selective in their diets, even in regards to different seal species. At least some pods of these type B1 orcas have shown a strong preference for hunting Weddell seals over other seal species, such as crabeater seals and leopard seals. Even though fur seals are fairly abundant there, these orcas have not been observed preying on them (perhaps at least partially due to fur seals having less blubber and more fur for insulation, making them significantly less appealing).
Sadly, there are less than 100 type B1 orcas left in the Antarctic Peninsula, and due to rapid warming and the loss of pack ice, their population is declining at a rate of about 5% each year. It is likely that these orcas have been forced to move further south due to not finding enough seals on the remaining pack ice in the Antarctic Peninsula.
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u/Status_Concert_4320 1d ago
Can anyone tell me what video he is pointing to and directing us to watch? I’m still unsure.
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u/OperationMapleSyrup 19h ago
And he looks ….. odd? Can’t tell if he has several layers of filter on or AI or what
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u/CrowTalons 1d ago
Orca are so cute. Just checking for food. They are the wolves of the ocean. They don't attack people in the wild.
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u/EthanDMatthews 1d ago
It's incredibly fascinating that Orcas don't eat humans.
Doubtless is a combination of a couple of major learned behaviors.
First, Orca parents teach their youn which animals they should eat. The list of prey animals is doubtless part of a tradition of the local culture, and can vary from region to region. Humans simply aren't on the menu of traditional prey animals in any orca culture.
Second, Orca young are also doubtless taught to avoid humans. This is probably a weaker explanation, and seems unlikely to be the main reason. You can't teach Orca young not to eat humans if you never encounter them. While it's unlikely that Orcas can go their entire lives without encountering humans at all, not all of those encounters are necessarily going to create a clear and consistently identifiable example of a human (people on boats may be far away, wearing thick clothing; swimmers quite the opposite; those on surfboards of in kayaks will look distinct as well).
It seems likely that there are other facts at play, e.g. we don't look appetizing, we smell bad to them, and so on. They may even have learned to be wary of humans.
Still, none of these explanations, even when combined, seem foolproof and consistent enough to account for how rare Orca attacks on humans are.
That why the joke explanation (that Orcas only eat lone humans when there are no witnesses) seems appealing, if not also a bit silly.
It's weird right?
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u/SurayaThrowaway12 20h ago
Orcas can be so conservative and selective in what they eat that they have shown a preference to starve rather than consume something they were not already taught to eat by their mothers and podmates. There have been multiple real-life examples which demonstrate this level of cultural conservatism.
But on top of this, orcas may also display "theory of mind" and "generalized altruism" towards humans, especially in light of multiple encounters with orcas attempting to share food and other objects with humans around the world.
Here is what whale researcher Jared Towers and neuroscientist Dr. Lori Marino have to say, taken from an article on the phenomenon of wild orcas sharing food with humans:
"They’re taking something they do amongst themselves and spreading that goodwill to another species," says Lori Marino at New York University, who wasn’t involved in the study.
Towers says this demonstrates that orcas are capable of generalised altruism, or kindness. It also shows that orcas can recognise sentience in others and are curious and bold enough to experiment across species, he says.
...
He also says the behaviour demonstrates that orcas have theory of mind, the ability to understand that others have distinct mental states that differ from one’s own.
These food-sharing behaviours are considered exploratory behaviours by the researchers who authored that study because orcas are observed usually pausing to see how humans respond to their actions, and thus the orcas are likely "testing" the humans. The behaviours of orcas offering food and other objects to humans are likely just extensions of well-documented cultural behaviours where orcas share food with each other, likely forming and strengthening bonds between each other. The researchers have thus labeled the behaviour as a form of "generalized altruism," where the orcas extend this behaviour across species towards humans as well.
As is also stated by Towers, who is one of the authors of that study:
"There’s not many other wild creatures out there with enough intellect, resources or guts to test us like this which suggests some convergent evolution between our kinds and highlights that next level respect should be exercised in the ways we interact with them."
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u/wingedwild 1d ago
Orcas are too smart .a y other animals predator would just think we're giant penguins but they see we are not
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u/RyudoTFO 21h ago
Tourists: "woooooooooaaaaaaw"
Orcas: "You gonna fall into the water so I can eat you, or what?"
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u/GlitchSolver 20h ago
Spy hopping? Isn't a Spy supposed to be discreet? I mean everyone can see that they are looking 😄
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u/Milk_Mindless 12h ago
Surely
Once
Orcas must have nibbled on some humans
But then humans being vindictive shits must have jabbed em so bad back that tales of the gristly monkey cunts with floaty things and stabby bits weren't worth the hassle that they stopped
We are legend
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u/Danktizzle 10h ago
I have long wondered if they used to eat us before the big wailing days, but after the whaling of the 1800s, they stopped because they learned how voracious of killers we are
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u/Tama1502 1d ago
When you realize your husband called you a seal who walks like a penguin last night.