Possible reasons for orcas attacking boats

Since 2020 there have been hundreds of incidents involving orcas (so-called killer whales) and boats. Some people have characterized these encounters as "orca attacks." Most of them have happened in the waters off the Iberian Peninsula, especially in and around the Strait of Gibraltar, a waterway between Spain and Morocco. 

In some cases orcas damaged boats by repeatedly ramming them and even breaking off their rudders, the boat's steering apparatus. People have been terribly frightened and, understandably, felt under attack. However, the fact remains that orcas in the wild have never attacked directly (much less eaten) humans. It is much more often the case that humans hurt orcas through accidental ship collisions, entangling them in abandoned fishing gear, or through acoustic damage caused by navy ships, explosions, or underwater mining operations.

Some commentators have sided with the orcas and others show more sympathy for the boats that they sometimes target. A recent article in the Atlantic by Jacob Stern has the ridiculous title “Killer Whales Are Not Our Friends: Stop rooting for orcas ramming boats.” While a Washington Post editorial, looking at the matter more from the whale's perspective, has the title "Why are orcas attacking boats? Hint: It’s not a war on humans.

The recent behavior of the orcas is unusual and seems to be something new. Scientists haven't found the reason for it but there are some theories. One theory is that after an orca that scientists called "White Gladis" was accidentally injured by a ship, she taught juvenile orca to attack every ship they came across. This theory isn't favored by marine biologists who study orca in depth. They think it's more likely that the orca are exhibiting playful behavior. 

Deborah Giles, the research director for the NPO Wild Orca, has noted that orca sometimes engage in short-lived "fads," like moving the anchors of crab pots, hitching rides with larger whales, swimming around with salmon on their heads, or, perhaps most recently, messing around with boats around the Iberian Peninsula. Deborah Giles believes that the orca will eventually get bored interfering with boats and move on to doing some other naughty behavior. 

Hopefully, those sailing boats through their waters will not try to get revenge on the orca. A simple way to stop attacks by the orca seems to be just stopping the boat's engine. Could it be that they are irritated by the engines of boats and want to send us a message, "We've had it with your noisy boats!"

Neiwert, D. (2023, June 19). Why are orcas attacking boats? Hint: It’s not a war on humans. Washington Post. https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2023/06/19/orca-attacks-sinking-boats-science/

O’Kane, C. (2023, May 26). Killer whales are ramming into boats and damaging them. The reason remains a mystery. CBS News. https://www.cbsnews.com/news/killer-whales-attacking-boats-damaging-spain-portugal-reason/

Stern, J. (2023b, June 17). Killer Whales Are Not Our Friends. The Atlantic. https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2023/06/orca-killer-whale-attacking-boats/674438/

Threats to whales other than whaling

The World Wildlife Fund (WWF) is a very respected advocacy group which works to protect natural habitats and biodiversity. Therefore, I thought they would have a balanced view of the threats posed to whales other than whaling. It's important to look at non-whaling factors that may be threatening whales because they influence how vulnerable whales are and whether they should be better protected.

I found out that, in addition to whaling, whales are hurt by the following factors:

• getting caught in fishing gear (by-catch)
• climate change
• ship collisions
• toxic contamination
• oil and gas development
• habitat degradation

Whales, especially dolphins and porpoises (which are types of whales), get caught in nets accidentally when fishermen are trying to catch fish. This is called "by-catch." Since dolphins and porpoises need to breath air in order to live, they suffocate when they're caught in nets, so they can't just be thrown back into the sea.

Climate change is altering the whole ocean ecosystem and affecting the krill and other sea life that whales depend on to survive.

Fast moving ships sometimes strike whales and seriously injure or kill them. Some environmental groups want to impose lower speed limits on large ships, especially during critical whale migration periods.

Oil and gas development can hurt whales in various ways. For one thing, it releases toxic substances into the environment.

Finally, the natural habitat for whales is gradually degraded, partly by climate change and partly by the fact that the sea is getting more crowded with ships, pleasure craft, whale watching boats, oil rigs, etc.

According to the Office of National Marine Sanctuaries (part of the National Ocean Service, NOAA in the US), because marine animals, such as whales and dolphins, make use of sound for communication, feeding, and navigation, acoustic (i.e., sound) disturbances caused by dredging, mining, military activities, or boat traffic may affect whales and their behavior. 

For all these reasons, whaling may be the additional threat to whales which sends some species into extinction. One of the reasons Japan and countries such as Norway and Iceland give for continuing to carry out whaling include the idea that ocean stocks of the whales they are catching are at "healthy" or sustainable levels. However, as we can see from all of the threats to whales and to all marine life (mentioned above), there is a cumulative negative effect on the various species and whaling can be the straw that, so to speak, breaks the whale's back. All the more reason to stop whaling immediately.

Threats to Whales | Hawaiian Islands Humpback Whale National Marine Sanctuary. (2023). https://hawaiihumpbackwhale.noaa.gov/protect/threats.html

Threats to whales and dolphins. (n.d.). WWF. https://wwf.panda.org/discover/knowledge_hub/endangered _species/cetaceans/threats/

Whale and Dolphin Conservation (WDC). (2010, June 14). Against all odds - The threats to whales [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dLRWJnxykts

Whales are far more valuable to people alive than dead

I knew that whales were a kind of reservoir of carbon, but I didn’t know just how much carbon they stored. Apparently, it’s enough to make a measurable contribution to the problem of the warming of the earth and the oceans. Basically, whales remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere by the way the eat and poop. It is described in this excellent Ted Talk I heard recently given by an economist, Ralph Chami, who became an ally of whales after he got to see a Blue Whale up close and when he learned how important they are in helping to regulate the climate. 

Whales are useful for controlling carbon dioxide in the air because a major food on their menu is called krill, creatures that look like little shrimp. Krill, in turn, eat microscopic organisms called phytoplankton, which take so the equivalent of 4 Amazon forests of CO2 out of the atmosphere each year. By eating the krill, whales are storing much of that carbon in their bodies, so it doesn’t get released back into the air. When whales die, they sink to the bottom of the deep ocean. Anything below 1000 meters stays put in the ocean virtually forever. Even better, when the whales poop, they provide fertilizer for phytoplankton, which then grab even more CO2 from the atmosphere. Due to their tremendous size, the poop of whales contributes A LOT to nourishing the phytoplankton. 

As an economist, Ralph Chami realized that he had to translate the services that whales do for the planet (that is, sequester huge amounts of carbon and therefore help mitigate global warming) in ways that people understand: dollars and cents. So, he estimated that the services a single whale does to capture carbon in the course of their lifetime could be valued at 3 million dollars. It turns out that, on land, elephants also do an excellent job storing carbon, not in their bodies but by fertilizing trees, which in turn sequester carbon. He valued their services to the earth to be about 2.6 million dollars each. 

Armed with this information Ralph Chami has been trying to create a market place where companies who need to off-set their carbon footprints purchase credits from countries or areas that are taking measures to protect whales or elephants, or grow sea grass, which is also good at capturing carbon dioxide. 

It may see cold and calculating to give a monetary value to living things such as elephants and whales, but, if it helps to protect them, it can be a positive thing. 

Chami, R. (n.d.). What a living whale is worth -- and why the economy should protect nature [Video]. TED Talks. https://www.ted.com/talks/ralph_chami_what_a_living_whale_is_worth_and_why_the_economy_should_protect_nature?language=en

Introducing the Wailing for Whaling Blog

This blog has been in existence since 2011. It was mainly started to serve as an example for students taking a seminar focused on using web resources to research controversial issues at a private university in Tokyo. However, it has been maintained for more than 12 years out of interest and in light of the fact that thousands of visitors have come to the blog and may have enjoyed reading some of the posts. 

The situation regarding Japan's role in whaling operations has gotten somewhat better over the last several years since the international court of justice demanded in 2014 that Japan end its annual hunt of whales. It complied with that only after pulling out of the International Whaling Commission (IWC) in 2019. When it left the IWC, the Japanese government said that it would limit commercial whaling to within its own territorial waters. So, they would no longer have the pretense that they were engaged in whaling for "research purposes" when it was actually commercial in nature, as they did for many years

Unfortunately, however, the British newspaper, the Guardian reported in February of 2023 that a Japanese company, Kyodo Senpaku, is currently building a huge factory whaling ship, which they call a "mother ship." That ship will be capable of sailing 13,000 KM and can stay at sea for as long as two months. The idea is that smaller ships will capture the whales and the bigger "mother ship" will process the whale meat, freezing and storing it.

Minke whales, including a 1-year-old juvenile, being loaded aboard Nisshin Maru. This photograph was taken in the Southern Ocean by agents from the Australian Customs and Border Protection Service vessel, during a 2008 surveillance mission.

The government of Australia is strongly opposed to this planned return to whaling in the Antarctic Ocean, which Australia sees as its backyard, with whales in its waters that travel in and out of the so-called Southern Ocean. The Japanese government gave assurances to Australia’s environment minister, Tanya Plibsersek, that they were not funding this "mother ship" and claimed that it was a private endeavor. Given that it is highly unlikely that any future whaling operation can turn a profit, it's almost surely the case that the Japanese government is subsidizing the project with tax payer yen. 

The Guardian quotes the president of Kyodo Senpaku, Hideki Tokoro, as saying that the "mother ship" was intended to pass on “whaling culture" to future generations. As was noted elsewhere in this blog, this kind of whaling operation, with its exploding harpoons and huge vessels is a far cry from the traditional small-scale whaling that Japan engaged in for hundreds of years. It is something that Japan took up following the example of Western nations that have long since given up the practice as being barbaric and not in line with what is now known about the value of whales to the oceans' ecosystems. 

It looks like the Japanese government is now outsourcing the tired old claim that Japan's "whaling culture must be preserved" to private companies. The other claim, that it is needed for future "food security," is laughable given the unsustainable nature of the industry, huge ships using fossil fuels to travel thousands of miles to catch animals that are no longer part of the diet of modern Japanese.

Rachwani, M. (2023, February 16). Japan’s new whaling ‘mother ship’ being built to travel as far as Antarctica. The Guardian. https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/feb/17/japans-new-whaling-mother-ship-being-built-to-travel-as-far-as-antarctica#:~:text=The%20international%20court%20of%20justice,to%20within%20its%20own%20waters.