More incidents with orcas

[TooCoys]

Sounds like what's being touted as "attacks" or encounters, are actually less about encounters by orcas, and more about intrusion by man and boat. With more boats on the water, man is intruding into their domain and causing encounters, and the orcas are getting blamed for it.

[alaskanviking]

there are several areas of the world orcas are not acting normally. in Alaska they have learned to strip the commercial long lines and nets of fish. some of the Alaska' pods are increasing in numbers, the salmon runs have also been affected. Salmon numbers getting to the rivers has gone down in many areas, generally been poor the last several years. they suspect the big king salmon is in decline because of the Orcas, hotter water temperatures, bottom trawl nets scooping their food or a mix of all three. however closer to Washington the orca pods are thinning out and appear to have issues related to lack of food. might be giving the boats a nudge to see if something falls out!

its hard to tell if they are "playing" or getting aggressive and attacking. I suspect there is a big food component in the affected areas. there hasn't been many Orca attacking people incidents in Alaska, however most of Alaska is remote so its just as likely there hasn't been many "reported" incidents either. a lot of idiots go kayaking or boating by themselves unfortunately, not a good location for that when things go wrong. Growing up in South Central Alaska it was well known that you dont F with orcas. they remember specific faces!

[alaskanviking]

i grew up around commercial fishing in Alaska. lot of "stories" regarding Orca's, no proof so who knows.

i must have been 15-16 at the time, so 30-40 years ago +. that puts this around territory of Alaska days or early statehood, rules were different then. there was this old Russian fisherman, that told me about his encounter. he had a fishing boat with a big outrigger to help support the gear. he said he had Nitro/explosive tipped bullets with a 30/06 i think. we used to play around with such stuff back then.

anyway he said he had been fishing and it was a good day. he was over loaded and sitting low in the water, heading back in. A pod of Orcas had surrounded his boat, maybe they smelled the fish, maybe they sensed an easy meal if the boat went down. one had gotten between the outrigger and the boat and freaked the fishermen/ccrew out really bad. it had rolled over and was looking at them with a big eye. one of the crew got freaked and shot it in the eye with a handgun. if i remember right it was something small like a 9mm. not enough to kill it but enough to blow the eye and piss it off.

this pissed off the orca, and pandemonium ensued as the Orca started to ram the boat. they were overloaded with fish so already low in the water and worried about things as it was. fairly certain this is before there were many regulations and catch limits. the Orca was incensed in rage/pain and rammed the boat all the way into the mouth of the river, and up the river to the port/cannery. said it torn off/damaged thier outrigger ama, cracked the hull, and did a lot of damage. once they were safe and unloading fish the Orca went nuts and started ramming all the boats in the port. did a lot of damage to them, don't believe it sank any. they kept trying to call the Alaska fish and wildlife but they didn't believe the fishermen because "Orcas don't go up that far up the river". keep in mind that Alaska, especially back then is pretty untrusting of government. they eventually had to shoot the whale with the explosive tipped round to put it down. they said the fish and wildlife finally came out and were pissed because there was a dead whale on the beach, but the fisher men told them "orcas don't swim that far up the river."

Not sure how much of this is true, most of the fishermen i knew growing up told a lot of fish tales, and their fish was always bigger than the one you just caught. maybe they were just messing with some teenagers. i think we all wee into stories a bit then, passed the time during the long winters i guess. however i remember most of the stories then had chunks of truth in them. Regardless it always gave me a healthy concern about Orca's and their intelligence, and i never went into the ocean then without a boat with decent freeboard. my buddy is afraid of them so much he freaks out with just the suggestion of kayaking or canoeing on the salt. ironically all my experiences with Orcas have been good.

[seadago]

Many folk stories like this one, about orcas and other marine (or terrestrial!) animals. Unlikely to be accurate though. Orcas would not "ram" a boat head-on, unless by accident. In common with all other dolphins, orca´s ecolocation organ, the mellon, is located in the front of their heads, bewtween their upper jaw and their blowhole. This is a very sensitive area, and any mechanical stress such as that caused by ramming a hard object head-on, would be very painful, and avoided altogether. Even dolphins bred in captivity in aquaria dislike having the front of their heads petted or touched. This does not mean a specific animal may not become aggressive and retaliate if threatened or, as in the story, "attacked" with a shotgun! The normal response would be to run away from the danger though. Animals are not bloody-minded by nature, there is absolutely no evolutionary advantage in vengeful behaviour as interpreted in human cultural contexts.

[Manateeman]

No, no, no. Fishermen never tell tall tales in bars.
Buy them a drink and ask about the kraken.
The manatees are getting real bored by the Orcas redundant attack plan.
They’ve sent the Orcas several designs for yacht disabling devices and investment opportunities in sea going tugs.
This is the Orca comic pages right?
Confused captain Mark

[GordMay]

B.C. humpback whale, “Valiant”, wards off gang attack by killer whales
Dramatic scene played out for about 20 minutes in southern Strait of Georgia, directly in the lane of a B.C. Ferries vessel.
Five-year-old “Valiant”, whose sex still hasn’t been determined, was seen by whale watchers, surrounded and harassed by nine Bigg’s orcas, in two hunting families. But the humpback was able to ward off the pods, by rolling around and trumpeting with each surfacing, a behaviour associated with aggression in humpback whales.
More ➥ https://vancouversun.com/news/local-...-killer-whales

[NevilleCat]

I guess we should consider it lucky that it is not humpbacks that are messing with boats then!

[GordMay]

Video shows shrinking Killer Whale pod may have welcomed its first calf in more than a decade
Biologists and whale-watching enthusiasts are celebrating what appears to be a new orca calf in a southern resident pod that researchers say has been shrinking in recent years.
New video, taken by John Goodell, shows a small orca swimming with K-Pod off the coast of Oregon.
It could be the first baby in a decade for this particular group of orcas, biologist Michael Weiss said — the last documented calf in that pod, that is still around today, was in 2011, a male named Ripple (K-44).
The Centre for Whale Research says the survival rate of orcas in their first year is 37 to 50 per cent.
Research from the University of Washington shows that about 69 per cent of orca pregnancies are unsuccessful

More about ➥ https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/briti...baby-1.6440622

Video ➥ https://youtu.be/WrZoKoPIPKg

Study shows high pregnancy failure in southern resident killer whales; links to nutritional stress and low salmon abundance
➥ https://www.washington.edu/news/2017...mon-abundance/


OK: Although Orcas are, often mischaracterized as Killer Whales, and have a lot of characteristics, in common with whales, taxonomically, they’re actually [the largest] dolphins. While all whales, dolphins, and porpoises fall under the order of Cetacea, the orca’s teeth are what classify them under the suborder Odontoceti, making them “toothed whales”; but their specific family, under the Odontoceti suborder is Delphinidae [oceanic dolphins].

[edmundsteele]

I noticed an internet article detailing how packs of Orcas attacked and ate a Blue Whale. (there were also articles about how they attacked great white sharks). What struck me what how they targeted the dorsal fin and tail of the Blue Whale. By rendering the control surfaces of this huge animal inoperable, the Blue Whale couldn't escape.

Now when we consider the yachts that have been attacked by Orcas, the attack hasn't been the movie version of Moby Dick (OK, Sperm whale, not Orca) ramming the Pequod but an attack on the rudders of the yachts, i.e. its fins. Since we are no longer allowed to employ a tattooed Fijian warrior as harpoonist to protect our boat, perhaps we could substitute a fake fin for the little darlings to bite. Taking a leaf from Petsmart's bulldog chew toy section, how about a Kevlar panel, towed on a couple of lines behind the yacht, a few feet off the stern? A small sheet of plywood would be cheaper of course.
Ed

[Tupaia]

Two more attacks in the Gibraltar Straits. Lagoon catamaran, destroyed the steering on both rudders and had to be towed into Tariffa. Monohull attacked on the north side managed to sail to Tangier and was attacked a second time on the south side.

[edmundsteele]

In 2004 my wife and I had a "close encounter" with an orca off the east coast of Australia. We were motoring in dead calm conditions when a large black fin approached from the opposite direction. We slowed and when level with us and about 50 yards off, the "fin" turned as the orca was "looking" directly at us. After about a minute, it turned back on its original course. End of exciting tale...but it did raise the old adrenalin to be checked out by an apex predator. Below is the article I noticed on orca hunting methods.

http://www.earthtouchnews.com/natura...han-you-think/

Ed

[Winf]

Is there evidence that the best thing to do is go quiet during one of these encounters?

Has anyone tried turning the motor on, rev up and down, in gear, out of gear, radical course changes, bang the hull, slap the water with a paddle, prod them with a boat hook?

But genuinely don't know - never been in the situation. Never even seen an Orca up close.

If I was in the situation and they weren't doing anything likely to cause damage would probably tend to just enjoy the close up approach and get lots of pics.

But if they started shenanigans, I think my natural reaction would be to try to discourage them. I don't know, seems kind of passive to sit there while they eat your rudder.

Winf

[boatman61]

Well my encounter with a pod mid Atlantic was great.. First spotted them approaching the boat at 10am, a large fin (maybe 5ft) followed by 7 other smaller ones.
They circled the boat for a while eyeballing me so I stood up and informed them food wrapped in plastic was not good for them.. it was either that or my Speedo's but they stopped circling and slowly cruised with me for a while then headed off.
That night I was in my quarter berth when I heard a loud snuffling noise so went up top with my spotlight and shone it around, didn't see anything but there was a loud slap on the water astern so I apologised, turned off the light and went back to bed... woke around 5.30am, made a coffee and went topside to see the Orca pod on my flanks and astern lazily keeping pace as I drifted along at about 3.5kts..
They pottered off around 10am then returned just after sunset for the night.
This was repeated for 4 more nights then I presume I had moved out of their area or migration route because I never saw them again.
I have wondered if a Bosun's Call would have some effect, especially the 'trill'..
Positive or Negative yet unknown..

[Lodesman]

Originally Posted by PeteTheDeliverySkipper

What is going on? In this last year so many yachts have been damaged by orcas off the coast of Spain.

We were delivering an Amel 52 from Gibraltar to the UK and this happened yesterday:

It has happened once again, another incident with Orcas off the coast of Spain.

Pete

Did you turn off the echo-sounder? Did you have forward-looking sonar?

I suspect the orcas have figured out fishing vessels are "competition", but don't distinguish between yachts and fishing vessels. Probably attracted by E-S or fish-finders and then try to drive away the competitor through intimidation.