Orcas no match for humans
Killer whales have had a long, contentious relationship with humans seeking to profit off them
In 2023, orcas (commonly known as killer whales) made headlines as scientists recorded more than 350 interactions between orcas and boats — including orcas sinking them — in the Strait of Gibraltar between Morocco and Spain. In one article from USA Today, researchers hypothesized these interactions were unlikely to be targeting humans and that the orcas were learning these boat-rocking behaviors from one another. And while the motivations behind the boat interactions remain a mystery, they have brought orcas back into the limelight.
Orcas are actually large dolphins, and for decades people have sought to profit off of killer whales, even when it has put the animals and the people close to them at risk.
The long history of captive killer whales, according to World Animal Protection Australia, began in 1965 when one young orca was accidentally captured in a fishing net off the coast of Namu, British Columbia. Seattle Marine Aquarium owner Ted Griffin was alerted, as the fishermen knew there would be a high price for the young killer whale. Ultimately, Griffin paid $8,000 for the roughly 10-year-old orca who was named Namu after the place of his capture. When the public found out about the aquarium’s new orca, there was so much positive feedback that Hollywood made a movie: Namu, Killer Whale (1966). The film portrayed orcas in a rather aggressive way and was later compared to the original shark horror hit, Jaws. Namu, however, didn’t make it more than a year in captivity before a bacterial infection led to his drowning.
Though Namu died, Griffin was still making money off of the orca species, and specifically Namu’s name and image. Griffin founded Namu Inc., a company that supplied marine parks with orcas from groups called pods in the Salish Sea off the coast of Canada. SeaWorld was Namu Inc.’s biggest customer. The name Namu might sound similar to that of another iconic orca: SeaWorld’s Shamu. Shamu, a female orca, was named after Namu — her name a combination of “she” and “Namu.” In the wild, orcas are highly social animals, and orca calves never leave their mother’s side while being raised in a pod. The first calf to be named Shamu was from Puget Sound, and to capture her, hunters had to harpoon her mother. There were many more “Shamus” to come at SeaWorld’s parks.
That first Shamu died the same year she was captured at only 9 years old, which is incredibly young for orcas. Male whales can live to their mid-30s, while females can live to their mid-50s. But to understand the true toll captivity can take on a killer whale, you have to understand how intelligent orcas are. For instance, no two orca pods have the same way of communicating. Each pod has its own clicks, whistles and behaviors with different meanings.
In the Pacific Northwest, orca lifespans have gone down as the population of chinook salmon has declined, according to WildOrca, a group that advocates for the endangered “southern resident” orcas. But orcas don’t just depend on the salmon, they are apex predators — at the top of the food chain in their ecosystems.
According to Whale & Dolphin Conservation USA, orcas are mostly “generalist eaters” that consume animals including seals and sea lions, dolphins and porpoises, sharks and rays, large whales, octopods and squids, as well as seabirds.
Many people know about orcas from the 2013 documentary Blackfish, which brought to light the pain of these mammals when they are held in captivity. The documentary focused on one orca in particular: Tilikum, or Tilly, who died in 2017 and was the largest orca ever kept in captivity. He fathered at least 21 calves in his lifetime, according to National Geographic. Tilikum was also involved in the deaths of two SeaWorld trainers and a 27-yearold man who was found dead at the park, according to The Whale Sanctuary Project.
Following the release of Blackfish, SeaWorld made promises to the public to cease its captive breeding program and to end theatrical shows featuring captive orcas, opting instead for more “natural encounters” with the massive predators, according to NPR.
During recent years, these emotionally intelligent mammals have been shown a lot in the news, highlighting the complex relationship humans have with orcas. In light of Earth Day this year, there are many sources to visit online that list fantastic ways to help and further education and study, including The Whale Sanctuary Project (whalesanctuaryproject. org) and World Animal Protection U.S. (worldanimalprotection.us).