Mysterious Orca Interactions
Over the past six months, boats off the coasts of Spain and Portugal have reported over 40 incidents involving orcas. In each of the incidents, accounts suggest that animals were aiming for the rudder and hull. The whales also seemed to be deliberately targeting sailing boats. Skipper David Smith described the incident as "terrifying" and stated he was "preparing to ask the Portuguese coastguard to send a helicopter to get us off". As the animals continued to ram the rudder and hull for over 2 hours, Smith's largest concern was that the continuous ramming may dislodge the rudder stock and fracture the hull of the boat. Over three hours away from the Portuguese coast, the coastguard advised the group to switch off the motor and take down the sails in an attempt to make themselves as "uninteresting" as possible. While Smith and his team escaped with no damage, a sailing vessel in July had to be towed back to shore after the rudder was damaged in a similar interaction. Later that same day another boat, a naval yacht this time, lost part of its rudder as a result of ocra's ramming. Out of 40 incidents reported thus far, no humans have been injured.
Scientists Speculate
As reports of unusual events became more frequent scientists began to hypothesize what could be causing their strange behavior. Dr. Ruth Esteban, who studied the particular pod of orcas involved in the incidents for over six years speculated that the whales targeted the rudder because it's a mobile part of the vessel" and "In some cases, they can move the whole boat with it". She believes that the orcas view the encounters as a game and that moving such a larger object is particularly entertaining and impressive for them. Another biologist, Dr. Renaud de Stephanis, quickly rejected the idea that the orcas could be acting out of vengeance or even intended to damage the boat. Rather, he hypnotizes that a past behavior of this pod of orcas could explain their behavior. Back in the mid-1990s, the orca pod began stealing tuna from boats and off the longlines that trail in the water. Since orcas often learn from others in the pod, the next generations have learned the same trick. Renaud believes that this behavior could have led to younger orcas changing their relationship with boats to an opportunity to play.
Controlling Public Perception
As knowledge of these encounters became more widespread and news sources began to cover the story, Neuroscientist Lori Marino, president of the Whale Sanctuary Project, began to raise concerns on the public perception of the incidents. She warned against categorizing the orcas' behavior as purely playful, or aggressive stating that we would be setting ourselves up to "misunderstand the species entirely" and that we need to consider that "they're young males, they're going to be rambunctious". At the advice of scientists worried about possible future persecution of the species fueled by fear, the coastguard and media have begun altering their language when referencing the encounters. Rather than referring to the events as "attacks" they have begun describing the reports as "incidents" or "encounters". Dr. Michael Weiss from the Center for Whale Research says that "We would be wrong to impose our sense of right and wrong on any other animal" especially one with it's "own developed sense of culture" To classify them in a simple category of good or evil, playful or vengeful would not accurately encompass the whale's emotional and behavioral complexity and therefore, would be a disservice.
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