Given mankind’s long sad history of attempting to eradicate animals that prey on resources the humans feel entitled to, I don’t doubt it’s happened. Attributing the orca attacks to it, though, is unproven and likely unprovable.
Perhaps it’s just that Orcas are assholes.
Yes, the fact that humans on boats hurt an orca, and they are retaliating is but one theory.
However, fishermen randomly killing Orcas- especially that endangered population- is a great reason to say-No- just stop fucking with them is the best choice.
This cite explains the long running competiton between marine mammals and fishermen-
https://www.wellbeingintlstudiesrepository.org/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1007&context=sota_2005
Killing Sea Lions to Save Salmon Makes No Sense!.
U.S. authorities have passed a new regulation to allow the slaughter of over 700 sea lions in the Columbia River, in a misguided attempt to protect salmon and steelhead trout from extinction.
https://www.nationalgeographic.com/animals/article/protected-sea-lions-shot-along-california-coast
California Sea Lions Keep Getting Shot by Fishermen
Despite legal protections for sea lions, fishermen resort to lethal force to keep them from stealing their catch.
So, just to check, if I read those cites I am definitely going to see direct evidence of fisherman killing orcas “because they ate all the fish”, right?
No, you will see fishermen killing marine mammals as they think they eat too many fish.
Fishermen have been complaining about marine mammals 'eating all the fish" for a long time, and killing or attacking the marine mammals to stop them.
I dont know if Spain cares about that.
And I do know Spain has been warned about doing it-
Commission takes legal action against France, Spain and Sweden to protect marine mammals
The European Commission has demanded today that France, Spain and Sweden take immediate action to prevent the needless deaths of dolphins and porpoises killed every year as bycatch in fishing nets.
The announcement follows a major intervention last year by a group of NGOs asking the European Commission to take legal action against 15 EU governments for failing in their legal duty to protect vulnerable marine mammals.
Now if you think it is simply impossible that any Spanish fisherman etc has accidentally (as by catch) or on purpose- killed orcas- just say so. I mean, I have shown that scientists consider an attack on orcas as one of two possible causes.
I agree in principal that ignorant fishermen almost certainly kill predator species that prey on their intended catch.
But bycatch, the subject of your cites, is a completely different issue.
Namely that net fishing doesn’t care what species are caught in its nets; if you’re swimming at the right depth, you’re scooped up, period. And the fishermen don’t bother to rescue the species they’re not trying to harvest; they simply toss them over the side. Which in the case of air breathers held underwater in the nets until they’ve mostly or fully drowned, amounts to purposely by accident killing lots of predator species. Which probably makes them happy. Although not so much the fisheries authorities.
How do fisherman kill orcas? Do they have 20 mm cannons on fishing boats?
Drown them in nets- sorta kinda by accident- or shoot them with a 8MM bolt action rifle or 12ga shotgun.
Yes, that is the way most are killed.
Do see my third cite -
California Sea Lions Keep Getting Shot by Fishermen
Despite legal protections for sea lions, fishermen resort to lethal force to keep them from stealing their catch.
When I was a marine biology grad student, I went out on "party boats_"no, there was no party, but anyone could buy a ticket and go- they held- 20-50 fishermen. I got on free due to a letter from the University- but only if the boat wasnt full anyway. I had to pay extra for a bunk. Twice I saw dudes shooting sea lions- one it was a deckhand with a rifle, and another time it was a dude who whipped out a snub nosed pistol, pumping three shots into the poor guy. I was told that the deal was I wouldnt report anything …err…umm…fishy- to the F&G.
Last time I checked, sea lions are not orcas.
True. But if the general claim is “Some fishermen in some places ignorantly kill some predator species”, the cite supports that claim.
Add that to the utterly unremarkable claim that people are equally stupid, short-sighted, and selfish worldwide.
Then add the unremarkable claim that orcas eat fish that some humans want to catch, and we arrive at something close to QED.
That would be valid if the orca attacks were distributed globally. But they’re happening in a very specific part of the world. So the claim “some fishermen in some places” isn’t relevant. We’d need to show that this was happening in the seas off Gibralter.
Conversely, googling this I saw a report that half a dozen orcas had been drowned off Alaska by getting tangled in nets last September. Which is sad, but there aren’t reports of orca attacks on boats in that part of the world, which means we can’t be at all certain that bycatch drownings cause orcas to attack boats. In fact, I even saw another report saying that in Indonesia they hunt orcas for meat - a direct attack which apparently hasn’t led to orca retaliation.
So the causal chain: fishermen accidentally or deliberately kill orcas → orcas link these deaths to boats → orcas attack boats has some pretty shoogly links.
ETA - IIRC the original speculation about revenge as motive had to do with an orca being accidentally struck by a yacht, nothing to do with the fishing fleet.
The Straits of Gibraltar is one of those places where refugees and asylum-seekers try to cross from Africa into Europe, often in poorly-provisioned, overloaded, inadequate inflatable craft. The people on board these boats are poorly documented and if they go missing at sea, there is not likely to be anyone who will report their absence or instigate an official search.
Have the orcas been eating people on these small boats, and learned that boats in those waters, contain edible people?
Jesus, that’s a horrifying thought.
Agreed. It remains superficially plausible but not definititively proven. More “It stands to reason” (a common excuse for shoddy thought) than QED. As the better articles (and you) say.
Sorta the aquatic version of this
and this
Taking the suggestion seriously, it too seems plausible to me. Refugee flows are not evenly geographically distributed either. But …
IIRC there were also orcas attacking boats off South Africa. If so, that’s not an obvious area for feeding on refugees. Although I may be misremembering and conflating Great White shark attacks with orca attacks.
USA Today has published an article from a multi-national group of orca experts that has a plausible answer. It appears to be juvenile orcas involved in playtime.
So not just assholes. Teenage assholes.
Orca equivalent of tipping over Porta-Potties.
Right. It works as a hypothesis. And sure the marine biologists do consider revenge as one of the two possibilities. Mind you- having boats hit and hurt Orcas is also a good hypothesis for the revenge scenario.
That is certainly plausible there also. And it also says that revenge is unlikely. We still dont know however.
In conclusion, orcas are a land of contrasts.
You may be conflating orca attacks on sharks in South Africa with orcas attacking boats. Because that is a whole thing.