With Extinction Rebellion (ER) finally drawing real ire from the Government with their blockade of the propaganda master Rupert Murdoch, another species has seemingly hit the headlines for raising awareness of it’s own plight this week. The Straits of Gibraltar Orcas have been playing with sailing boats. Apparently unsuspecting sailors have found themselves suddenly turning half circle in response to orca whales ramming their vessels. They have been reported too as taking chunks out of the rudders of these same boats, leaving them to float uncontrolled in what is one of the busiest shipping lanes in the world. What precisely is leading the orca to do this is currently unknown to us.
Naturally there are plenty of hypothesis. Orca have been known to play with boats in the past. They are of the dolphin family and anyone who has sailed as a pod of dolphin join you, will know they are inquisitive and from our human perspective having fun. Having watched a dog lead me through it’s territory in Nepal once I have been curious whether dolphin are simply doing the same but really I have no idea. When playing with boats apparently orca have gently bitten on to the rudders and been pulled along like skateboarders in movies. This is the nice idea, their playing has simply got out of control.
Likely the reasoning is far more sinister. Orca are highly intelligent creatures and have found themselves in the Straits of Gibraltar struggling to survive. Their numbers are depleting with young calves invariably not living to adulthood. There are numerous potential reasons for this but it is a safe bet to suggest the depleted numbers of bluefin tuna, which form the orcas diet, will be having an enormous affect. This is a story we’re seeing repeated world wide with different animals in the sea and on land. With their natural habitat changing, or simply being destroyed, their movements and behaviour are evolving too. In the case of the orca their numbers are decreasing dramatically. In this stretch of water too, as happens across the world in similar situations, the local fishermen who catch the tuna see the orca as competition. While the sailing boats may traditionally be excited to see the whales, the fishermen see a challenge. There are reports of various whales having large cuts on their dorsal fins and across their bodies, it is argued these are the result of clashes.
The large volume of marine traffic in this area has been argued as a factor too. The relative silence in this area during Covid-19 restrictions has now ceased and it coincided with an increase in these ‘attacks’ in the months of July and August. At no point have they been seen as a threat to people but more that they have been after the boats. It is also unclear how much of a new thing this is, if they have been fighting fishing vessels it would likely be unreported and larger ships unknown. Perhaps though like ER they realised they need to make their presence known to those who might actually report and raise awareness of the situation. Not that these sailors can be accused of being the Rupert Murdoch’s of the sea but more they have evidently begun actions which have brought their plight to the worlds attention with an immediacy ER would be proud of. It is just one more example of the damage being done to an earth we’re dangerous incapable of living in with the kind of harmony our dominant position must demand. We seem happy to ignore the destruction we can see on land, it appears that now the orca have had enough of our ignorance of what goes on below too.
Observations and Misunderstandings 