Orca Concerns – Tuesday 17th October 2023

Orca Concerns – Tuesday 17th October 2023

Recently, the Orca have had my attention and it began to seem clear that among them were some individuals with very troubling behaviour.

Each time I went to look at some photos of them, there would be distressing pictures also. For example I wanted to see if the cute tongue they have had dexterity like humans and among the cute photos this dreadful scene of an Orca in a huge whales’ mouth. Blood, because the Orca had broken the long thin filtering baleen material and was attacking the whales’ tongue. And that’s a purely viscous thing to do. With all there is for an Orca to eat, to put one of those big giants through that for its tongue. And that and breaking it’s food filter isn’t survivable.

Clearly, those jaws are meant for large prey but how many tongues will it require to fill an Orcas stomach when they aren’t eating the rest of their victim. And then  next I saw a title, a pair of Orca killed 17 whale sharks in a single day just to eat their liver. That wouldn’t have been the only such incident by that pair, that would be their daily and were they to find a large congregation, that single pair could wipe out a thousand whale sharks in a very short space of time. If a group of Orca so inclined also joined in it would be a matter of days for the poor whale sharks.

I thought to myself, this type of behaviour can’t have been going on for a very long time. So if it’s recent, is it mental illness of members among the meat eating group? We have members among us that behave that way and we have to take action to protect ourselves.

So it’s not an impossibility that a similar type of problem can occur in Orca.

There are just several thousand great white sharks left and as fearsome as they are they don’t have a chance against an Orca that wants it’s liver. I think we need to look at this and see where this behaviour is going because the more I read the more I see that all the other sea mammals are living in total fear of them.

We wouldn’t tolerate it on land and we shouldn’t tolerate it at sea. So I think if we identify those Orca and tag and evaluate them. We are still hunting Orca ourselves I was surprised to learn, so if we are, wouldn’t it be wise to weed out those that are killing for fun.

A lion gets its meal and that animal isn’t wasted. The lion doesn’t run around killing everything in sight and it very much seems that some of the meat eating Orca are doing just that and they will teach it to others, youngsters and so on.

So I was very troubled by what I saw and the wanton viciousness of it, that to my mind it’s the behaviour of a very real sickness. That poor big gentle whale suffering such terrible fear and misery disturbed me terribly. These creatures need us to intervene on their behalf. And I very much love the Orcas, but mad mindless Orca have to be considered in the same way as mad mindless humans who also kill for thrill.

Fiona MacLeod (C)