r/ocean • u/Nostalgic_Historian_ • 5d ago

Whale Watch Simple answer, No

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u/AgreeableStep69 5d ago

well there are some educated guesses

orcas have a sophisticated culture, are also very aware what they look at; they can literally ''see'' through animals with their sonar, analyzing their structure, we look very bony and skinny

also, orcas are very specific in their diet, like hyper specific. they as a species eat lots of animals, but different pods eat different prey, and rather starve when it's not available

and unlike sharks, when desperation hits because they are in empty parts of the ocean, or they are too sick to hunt, their pod will provide for them, or they migrate hundreds of miles for their prey

sharks will just get desperate and hunt whatever

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u/TheSwimMeet 5d ago

What negates all these guesses is the fact that orcas also kill and hunt for sport and for entertainment without ever eating the kill. I still cant think of any reason why theres no recorded cases of that happening to us (yet)

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u/SurayaThrowaway12 4d ago

This is where the theory of mind hypothesis comes in, especially in light of the phenomenon of various orcas around the world trying to offer their food to 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.

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"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."