Orca Boats and Vinegar – 6.10am Thursday September 25th 2025

Orca Boats and Vinegar – 6.10am Thursday September 25th 2025

Recently, I have seen some articles about Orca once again damaging and or sinking boats. I also read that some boater/s? was or is going to throw vinegar at them. This may seem harmless enough to us, but I don’t think it’s a good idea.

My opinion is that they aren’t playing. In a sense we might equate it to something I used to see a lot of many years ago.

Which was people who had been unfairly treated, politically perhaps, or union type conflicts which could turn really serious and supporters would graffiti, damage property on work sites, among other things. Different to teenager type graffiti.

My belief is that the Orca in this region are experiencing a type of resentment toward boaters.

A scenario for ourselves would be something along the lines of Neanderthals living as ocean dwellers and ourselves on land. Neanderthals witness our taking of food in their domain. Our nets and ropes and hooks causing pain and suffering. Our pollution and chemicals in their domain. Being struck by watercraft and maimed. At what point would we start to resent this and other behavior in our domain by another species?

And if we made an attempt to express our resentment and had vinegar thrown at us, then what?

What could occur is escalation. These are mammals who aren’t like cows in a paddock. We have to afford them greater intelligence. They survive in a water world amongst non-mammals and have to be conscious of their surrounds around the clock. Using the brain in this way dictates they have to be very observant.

I’ve never heard of an Orca biting a person in the sea, only in captivity within the confines of a pool and expected to forfeit their lives for the purpose of entertaining us. Some have snapped, mentally.

Orca have something like five times the bite force of a great white shark. So they are evolved to use that jaw, whilst the shark is about teeth.

If you vinegar them, they may become more stealthy and more resentful. They may dive and attack a boat from beneath and frankly, they could bite us as if we were butter.

I think the Orca need to be considered somewhat more thoughtfully in their domain. Not treated like a  pest with toddler mentality. It is their domain after all.

Fiona MacLeod (C)