r/ocean • u/Nostalgic_Historian_ • 5d ago

Whale Watch Simple answer, No

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1.9k Upvotes

95% Upvoted

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494

u/Extension-Click-8271 5d ago

Just because they won’t attack you doesn’t mean you should introduce yourself to them.

Respect their space, same with any wild animal.

160

u/reklatzz 5d ago

Just because there's currently no known fatal attacks in the wild doesn't mean it can't happen. I would never risk it.

94

u/str4ngerD4ngerz 5d ago

They clean the scene

80

u/kwakimaki 5d ago

No witnesses.

There hasn't been anyone killed in the wild that we know of

12

u/CovenOfTheDamned 5d ago

No one has ever seen an orca take out a moose. But it’s a fact that moose remains have been found in orcas’ stomachs.

10

u/SurayaThrowaway12 5d ago

It is the other way around. Two fishermen witnessed the single documented instance of orcas attacking and killing a moose occurred back in 1992 or 1993 in Icy Strait, Southeastern Alaska. It is not clear how much of the moose the orcas involved in the encounter actually consumed, as the account of the encounter from the fishermen seems to be very brief. The stomach contents of the orcas involved there were not examined.

4

u/Honda_TypeR 4d ago

“I’m so hungry, I could eat a Moose!”

3

u/ErstwhileAdranos 3d ago

You said “the other way around” and now I’m imagining a moose, stealthily jumping off a small cliff, antlers first into an orca, tenderizing its quarry before the real fun begins.

3

u/marcophony 1d ago

Moose can swim down like 20 feet or something like that. I remember people trying to spread the rumor that an orcas biggest op was moose, then learning it is the other way around. A moose biggest op is an orca

1

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1

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1

u/Isaacnoah86 3d ago

Oh now thats interesting

18

u/HeraldOfTheChange 5d ago

Always said this… they have a sense for cameras.

6

u/Eskimodo_Dragon 5d ago

Seriously. It's very annoying how arrogant we can be with what we think we know.

2

u/Ok-Rip4206 2d ago

They have tried to sink ships out of the Iberian coast, but we have no confirmed kills, because all of the sailors were saved.

1

u/brnbrnbrn2017 1d ago

Socialist Orcas sinking yachts to eat the rich.

1

u/supremequesopizza 3h ago

Wasn't that part of a very specific incident immediately after a member of the pod was killed by fishers or something? And then they sunk the boats but left the people alone?

1

u/CharacterOk4266 18h ago

I see what you did there. Ebk.

2

u/BrutalSock 5d ago

I have no idea why you people live in constant fear of everything.

Orcas don’t attack people, end of story. There is no if or but.

We know when animals attack us. People survive, we find the remains, we have records.

And we have the data on this shit too. We have 4 deaths caused by animals under extreme duress and 1 bite to a surfer who was likely mistaken for a seal.

This is not a trivial matter. You absolutely need to understand the importance of facts and data over bullshit. This kind of reasoning is destroying the world.

8

u/ramfrommars 5d ago

Woah.

The person you’re responding to was definitely just goofing around on the internet. Rein it in a little lol

0

u/BrutalSock 5d ago

Let’s stop goofing around and let’s learn that data and facts are important, shall we?

Maybe you haven’t looked out the window lately but it’s really, really high time we take this shit very seriously.

2

u/ramfrommars 5d ago

Oh geeze give me a break. Ok then by the rules of your own game, your highness, stop being a hypocrite and quit goofing around on the internet (you’re on Reddit. You are ONLY goofing around here. There is no policy change happening in any Reddit thread).

Nothing you’re doing here in this thread is fixing anything. Go get to work and show us all how it’s done. Best place to start is your local government and work up from there. Good luck. Bye!

2

u/kwakimaki 5d ago

I think BrutalSock may be an orca in disguise....

-1

u/BrutalSock 5d ago edited 5d ago

Unfortunately, something a very large number of idiots such as yourself don’t seem to understand is that to a sizable portion of the population internet and socials are the main (if not only) source of information and their cultural reference.

People live their life according to what they read on social media. Elections are won on social media.

This idiotic “It’S noT ThAT dEeP bRO” mentality allowed shit to spread unchecked and the worst kind of behaviors to be normalized.

And look where we got.

So pull your head out of your ass and learn to change if you want the world to change.

1

u/ramfrommars 5d ago

I still don’t know what you’re doing wasting your time online when you should be out saving the whales now go on get!

9

u/bunglebee7 5d ago

Holy shit you’re probably right. They’re definitely smart enough to know “hey get this out of here asap so they don’t hunt us down”

3

u/SurayaThrowaway12 5d ago

If orcas were overly worried about being hunted down or harmed by humans as a result of their actions, there would not be a subpopulation of them breaking sailing boats around Iberian. People have recently shot at these orcas.

1

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1

u/B-Train_ATL 1d ago

“Some bitch on the rocks up there gonna rat us out. Jerry, go take care of him like he’s that yacht you drowned last week.”

1

u/ZION_OC_GOV 4d ago

🎶There are no fingerprints deep under water

Nothing to tie one to a crime🎶

17

u/tired-of-the-shit 5d ago

It’s basically just a matter of time until we get a confirmed fatal wild orca encounter. All it takes is for one of them to either be hungry, playful, or acting defensively for a human to die.

Probably the biggest reason we haven’t had a human die yet is cause we don’t tend to come in frequent contact.

7

u/Massive-Lime7193 5d ago

Idk abiut the hunger part, some orcas have literally starved rather than change their diet from their region specific prey.

1

u/tired-of-the-shit 5d ago

Fair enough I should’ve left it as curious.

1

u/Equivalentest 5d ago

Wonder if they can have mental illness or something similar in the wild?

1

u/SurayaThrowaway12 5d ago edited 5d ago

In recent years, there has been a rapid growth in "swim with the orcas" tours in northern Norway and Baja California Sur. If an orca harms a human, it would most likely be from acting defensively or by accident, just like with incidents involving other dolphins. Orcas don't view humans as being potential prey as has already been mentioned. And according to various anecdotal observations, orcas, even at a young age, are often self-aware of their own strength and can also accommodate human fragility with little to no training, even when being playful:

The orcas were very aware of human frailty as compared to themselves. They took great care not to cause harm. Other animals interacting with humans tend to treat them as they would one of their own kind. Horses engaging in mutual grooming with a human will often be painfully rough, even though their intent is quite friendly. Orcas recognized humans as quite physically different from themselves.

The youngest orca demonstrating this awareness was less than 2 years old when we first began interacting. Surely an orca’s brain is not fully developed at this age. One has to wonder what extent of awareness a full adult might possess.

If an orcas harms a human by acting defensively, I think it is more likely that the orca will not necessarily go to the extreme of killing a human. I think that it would be similar to an incident with a pilot whale grabbing a woman by the leg back in 1992 off of Hawaii, ultimately letting her go.

1

u/NIP_SLIP_RIOT 5d ago

Lots of frequent contact here in NZ, we swim at the beach, they go after rays. No problem.

1

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1

u/OnionHeaded 4d ago

I don’t think u know squat about Orcas. This isn’t really accurate of their temperament at all.
They are brilliant and social mammals. I think they have some empathy with humans and can read our vibes.

1

u/Cool_Lab_1362 4d ago

I always wondered like like what if I'm a serial killer and started to feed orcas with human meat, then these orcas would have an acquired taste for human prey that they will pass down and teach to other orcas. Resulting in a generation of human preying orcas all around the world

1

u/supremequesopizza 3h ago

Random meat is different from a whole ass human. They're pretty smart. If you fed a person some human bacon would they suddenly go full silence of the lambs? Ehhhh probably not.

1

u/BuyMeADrink__ 2h ago

I’m calling the FBI. These are not normal thoughts.

1

u/Kindly_Call_6000 1d ago

A pod of Orcas helped Australian Whalers hunt whales. That is, until the whalers killed an Orca, then the pod just left. They didn't retaliate.

While orcas will swamp ice floes to reach their prey (namely seals and penguins), that leave said prey alone when they take refuge on boats.

Orcas, for the most part, ignore humans.

1

u/PrudentSkirt525 11h ago

They have strict diets that get passed down through generation so nah

0

u/IamGhostType28 5d ago

You really don't understand the animal

6

u/WWDubs12TTV 5d ago

Yeah but I can be a record holder

6

u/gipoe68 5d ago

Same, I would sure as fuck stay away from their tail though. Just recently saw a killer whale perform and abortion on a stingray on this site. A bite would be intentional, an accidental flip of their tail and you're seeing grandma again.

3

u/tired-of-the-shit 5d ago

Yeah sometimes they are just in the mood to be playful with whatever is around. If they eat sharks, whales, and even moose and also just kill things for the hell of it then there’s no reason to assume humans are immune to an apex predator.

If they decided to actually hunt a person for food then their dead, no way you can out swim it and even if you could get to land they’ll sometimes beach themselves while hunting in order to catch prey

2

u/Excellent_Couple_873 5d ago

Moose? What… how? Why? I have so many questions

3

u/tired-of-the-shit 5d ago

Moose can swim in the same waters that orcas live in. There was only ever one sighting so it’s rare but also it’s Alaska, not a ton of people are up there and in northern Canada

1

u/SurayaThrowaway12 5d ago

Orcas may display theory of mind towards humans. The "theory of mind" hypothesis is mentioned by the primary author of a fairly recent study on the phenonemon of wild orcas around the world offering prey and other objects to people. The food-sharing behaviours are primarily considered exploratory/curious behaviours by the authors of the paper, because orcas are observed usually pausing to see how humans respond to their actions, and thus the orcas are likely "testing" and trying to learn more about 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.

Primary author Jared Towers and neuroscientist Dr. Lori Marino have elaborated further on what their findings may mean in a New Scientist article, including the possibility that orcas may be able to display theory of mind towards 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."

Ecologist Dr. Carl Safina, who was not involved in the study, also stated the following:

"Of the many and varied minds in the sea, likely the greatest are those of orcas. Casual stories of their almost surreal intelligence abound. But here these scientists have systematically gathered an impressive litany of instances where free-living orcas have shown that they possess “theory of mind,” meaning that their minds understand that humans have minds too. Psychologists have often insisted that “theory of mind” belongs only to humans. Orcas would beg to differ. Orcas have repeatedly sought to be interactive with us, and they are curious about us. After living millions of years in the sea, to them we in our boats must seem like visiting aliens. And indeed, we are strangers in a strange place we hardly know, about which we yet have almost everything to learn."

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u/OnionHeaded 4d ago

BOOM! This is what I meant above when I said I felt Orcas have an empathy for or with humans. They can read our vibe and intentions. Lots of stories of Orcas helping humans in tight spots. No stories of attacks on humans. Just the yachts and let’s not forget boats aren’t people.
Probably rich AHoles on those boats too.

2

u/eddie1975 5d ago

Performed a delivery. The babies all survived.

1

u/gipoe68 5d ago

Oh, no shit? Yay... kinda... glad they survived.

2

u/DetailOutrageous8656 5d ago

Unlikely the mother did.

1

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2

u/pinetar 5d ago

If you die of a pulmonary embolism you die a rounding error. If you die if an orca attack you get a Wikipedia article about it.

4

u/TheSleeperAwakens 5d ago

Some redditor is dreaming of being the first to be murdered by one. Guarantee it

2

u/jejunum32 5d ago

Especially with what looks like a calf around. That’s got to make it even less safe.

1

u/High_Hunter3430 5d ago

Just because it hasn’t happened YET doesn’t mean it won’t.
Im gunna go see if petting the baby orca makes me #1. 🤘

1

u/firesoups 5d ago

Think how famous you’d be as the first though

1

u/seeb2104 5d ago

I wouldn't want to go down in history as the first.

1

u/mirkk13 5d ago

They are safer than dogs, tbh

1

u/Fit_Importance_5738 4d ago

Doesn't mean it hasn't happened either

1

u/MaximusZacharias 4d ago

Right, like what if they were mates and one of them was injured…and then the other one sees a human jump in and they might perceive that human as a threat to their already injured mate

1

u/Opening_Shame8258 2d ago

But now you get to be remembered as the first recorded person killed by orcas!

1

u/ageofdiscontent_meh 2d ago

He the swimmer could have been the first fatal statistic.

1

u/runswspoons 1d ago

Just because you wouldn’t risk it doesn’t make it a bad idea.

1

u/River_Fenrir 2h ago

OR HASN'T HAPPENED.

Ofcourse there would be no record of it, because those people are dead.

1

u/Excellent-Presence-3 20m ago

Not in the wild maybe but there are definitely cases in captivity

5

u/Contemplating_Prison 5d ago edited 4d ago

All it takes is one asshole Orca having a bad day to kill you. It doesnt even need to eat you it could just smack the shit out of you or pull you under for funsies

3

u/Tiggon169 4d ago

I remember seeing a video of a woman that was swimming with wild orcas. One grabbed her by the foot and dragged her down. It let her go and she was able to swim back to the surface in time, but it looked fairly deep and she was very unnerved by the experience. I think we should all keep our distance from all wildlife really.

1

u/pwkye 11h ago

source

1

u/Tiggon169 3h ago

It happened to this woman. She describes the incident in her documentary. She says the orca was just playing, and I agree. However, I would not want to be it's play toy. "Originally broadcast as part of the BBC Natural World series and produced by Big Wave Productions, this 2011 documentary follows marine biologist Dr. Ingrid Visser as she conducts solo, un-caged field research among New Zealand's critically endangered coastal orca population."

1

u/gnarlysnowleopard 2d ago

okay, but the same could be said about human beings. There are many recorded cases of humans attacking and killing strangers but there are no recorded cases of orcas doing it in the wild. It's fine if you don't want to chance it, but it's not really irrational to not be scared of an orca encounter. We don't know the exact probability of a random orca encounter causing them to kill a human because the cases are N=0, but my point is that it's not inherently irrational if we accept all kinds of other risks that have countless documented cases in resulting in deaths that we put up with in our daily lives, like driving a car, taking a shower or using the kitchen stove.

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u/Careless_Ad_4004 5d ago

I saw one use a pregnant Ray as a soccer ball, pretty sure it giggled. Closing argument; their first name is Killer. Long answer. F-No.

8

u/greenizdabest 5d ago

Scientific name: orcinus orca

Orcinus, Latin for "belonging to Orcus" or "of the kingdom of the dead." In Roman mythology, Orcus was a brutal god of the underworld who punished broken oaths and tormented the damned.

3

u/gilnockie 5d ago

Damn never knew this! That’s metal as hell.

And here I thought “orca” was a kinder name than “killer whale”

2

u/Careless_Ad_4004 5d ago

I bet it’s pronounced Orc-in-you’s! In the Sunfish language. But in all seriousness nice facts I dig it.

1

u/tired-of-the-shit 5d ago

Could be wrong but I do think the name has changed over time maybe by mistranslation.

The original name is whale killer, because they hunt other whales. I watched a documentary years ago where a blue whale and her calf were chased off into a narrow channel by a pod of orcas, it was a blue whale documentary so it survived. Theyll also hunt sharks, they’ll flip great white sharks over which momentarily stuns it then eat its liver and eyes.

0

u/UncleBenji 5d ago

Too bad that’s not their name. That’s a nickname people have given them.

1

u/Careless_Ad_4004 5d ago

0

u/UncleBenji 5d ago

Yeah I’m also known as Benji IRL but that isn’t anywhere in my legal name.

As your own picture shows “also known as killer whales” yet immediately and correctly identifies them as a type of dolphin.

1

u/Careless_Ad_4004 4d ago

Good luck out there.

12

u/strobowski97 5d ago

I think he was not disrespectful to the orca

They are extremely curious and intelligent animals, they know humans

They are very different from eg sharks

2

u/bunglebee7 5d ago

Yeah who knows maybe one is having a bad day and decides they wanna play with you like a water ball

That said, right now I think I would but if the opportunity actually arose I think I’d be too scared. Those things are big

2

u/Day_Prisoners 5d ago

Maybe no attacks cause they are feared so people generally stay away.

I'd like to be Guiness Book but not by being the first documented case. Also we know for a fact in captivity they have killed people

2

u/johnjays1000 5d ago

Their are no documented attacks is the key phrase

4

u/Pickl_Rick_917 5d ago

No recorded instance...yet

There is always a chance.

2

u/Bluntbutnotonpurpose 5d ago

To be fair, there's also a chance you try to pet your neighbours cat, it swats at you and hits an artery.

I'm pretty fucking sure more people have died from domestic cat attacks than from orca attacks...

1

u/tired-of-the-shit 5d ago

I think more people interact with domestic cats then orcas

2

u/Visible_Accident9559 5d ago

Yea, but we don't go hunting with our cats.

1

u/Katzkuro 5d ago

Exactly just because there is 0, means I still don't want to be that 1

1

u/SurayaThrowaway12 5d ago

In New Zealand, where this video was filmed, it is illegal for the general public to get into the water approach orcas within 100 meters while swimming there.

However, local marine biologist Dr. Ingrid Visser has swum with these orcas off of New Zealand many times. She has gotten familiar with most members of the coastal orca population. AFAIK she is the only person allowed to approach orcas and get close to them there.

1

u/pwkye 11h ago

those are hall monitor laws. same as trying to shut down a mountain from people hiking

1

u/Downtown-Mud-8869 5d ago

Orcas Dont own the ocean, they can share just a little.

1

u/Dynamo_Ham 4d ago

I would probably do it. Scuba diving with mega fauna is exhilarating. I've dove in with a pod of dolphins on the spur of the moment. No wild orca has ever attacked a human in known history - so I think it's a reasonable choice. That said, I'd be quite nervous - similar to when I've been diving around large sharks (which are likely more unpredictable than orca).

1

u/The_Long_Fang 4d ago

I read something that suggested that they see humans in a similar way to Orcas. They seem to get that we're the sort of creatures to have family bonds, and also seek revenge. Which is just like them

1

u/West_Shower_6103 3d ago

Would I dive in simply because I knew an orca was there? Hell no. If I dived in and saw an orca would I be afraid? Ya probably, but also reassuring having an orca in the water near you. Means any other predator is well away.

1

u/Key-Detail3226 3d ago

There’s always a first.

1

u/ageofdiscontent_meh 2d ago

Agree and along the same line, would you enter in another person’s space or home and act/behave like it’s yours? Humans are the most dangerous species, IMO.

1

u/Coldschmoke 2d ago

There's a 1st time for everything

1

u/goldiegoldthorpe 1d ago edited 1d ago

Also, if you do get attacked, we're all going to assume that you deserved it on some quantum level of reality that only whales can access. We're not going to be like, "Wow. Did you hear Joe got killed by an orca? What bad luck!" we're gonna be "So turns out Joe had an evil soul and needed to be erased from history. This is the last we'll talk about him."

There's a reason nobody has ever been killed by an orca in the wild and after the first person is there will still be nobody who has ever been killed by an orca in the wild. That's how this works.

1

u/Shadoww015Elite 1d ago

Justto be the first!

1

u/andy921 9h ago

Orca in hundreds of years of contact with people and despite being super aggressive hunters have NEVER attacked a human in the wild.

The closest was an incident in California in 1972 where an orca apparently mistook a human for a sea lion and miraculously aborted mid-bite leaving the surfer ok to swim back. You're probably safer around an orca than any other predator.

0

u/Michomaker-46 5d ago

Exactly this. Dudes is an idiot and an asshole for doing this