You might remember hearing a story back in late may, before the titanic submarine disaster, about orca’s attacking and disabling ships of the Iberian coast near Spain and Portugal. Well apparently it’s been happening since 2020. Orcas are taking action against something that has probably caused damage to them in the various ways a ship can (getting run over is the obvious one, noise, distrubing hunts are other possible reasons). Orcas are incredibly smart, social creatures living and hunting in a family pods that can be up to fifty indivduals. Orcas have developed a complex communication system (including the adaption of accents, dialects and even slang) and hunting techniques some of which are unique to a specific area. Although it is smaller than the sperm whale, its toothed whale relative, I think orcas are more dangerous due to their ability to work together. So this story is really interesting since this is a learned behavior by powerful, smart hunters that work in a group. As of yet there has been no recorded instance of any aggresion towards humans, they orcas will tear the boat up sure but they will not disturb the people on the ship, which is fantasic news for the orcas and people alike.

However orcas being social animals and this being something that has been going on for years it seems likely that this learned behavior may well be continusly learned and may improve over time, and be passed down by generations of orcas to come. To me this is a way of nature finally “fighting back” against the humans who have destroyed so much of their ecosystem. I fear that if this continues some orcas may be hunted but hopefully it doesnt come to that. I do not think we will see a ceasation of this behavior and in fact it may continue and pehaps become more and more common in various parts of the ocean as more and more orcas communicate this behavior across pods and seas. The social and cultural differences between orca pods in different areas of the sea is fascinating such as unique, language, hunting strategies proves these are animals with unique abilites and should be respected. Wonder what the first ship to piss off orcas in the Iberian coast is up to.