Message In The Madness

Orcas Have Lost Their Patience

Over the last few years, orcas — among the most intelligent and intuitive mammals on Earth — have been ramming vessels and destroying rudders on small ships off the Atlantic coastline of Iberia. Aggression by the apex predator of the oceans of the world has been a growing focus of attention and concern. These unprecedented attacks from the Straits of Gibraltar to the Bay of Biscay have sailors and scientists speculating about motivation.

The behavior is becoming more complex, and increasingly aggressive, and includes at least 500 interaction events at sea since 2020. In an attack last year, a pod of orcas broke off the rudder of a Spanish navy sailboat. Recent reports include an incident where nine orcas methodically pummeled the hull of a 46-foot ship for an hour.

Theories about their impetus range from playfulness to intentional hostility. Some scientists have suggested that the confrontations may be related to a previous accident with a fishing boat where an orca was injured. However, most marine biologists agree this is unlikely, as orcas have never been incited by a single event into long-standing aggression.

Despite their power and misleading common name, killer whales, orcas are in the dolphin family and like their cousins, have demonstrated gracious accommodation no matter how much they are abused. Continuing anthropocentric myopia blinds us to their apparent intent; considered evaluation yields a more likely cause of the numerous assaults.

Oceanic toxic pollution is pervasive and food sources are in rapid decline. This has been a critical problem for orcas and other sea life all around the world. The recent encounters involve an orca population whose habitat and existence are acutely threatened. Their aberrant activity follows the decimation of this local species over the last century. Disease and stress have contributed to the orcas’ reproductive decline. Where uncountable numbers of orcas dwelled for millions of years, the few remaining along the coastlines of Portugal and Spain are gravely endangered.

With an average lifespan of fifty years, there are orcas who have witnessed the disastrous encroachment and fouling of what was their pristine ocean home. This process has been steadily degrading and severely painful.

Scientists have also confirmed that orcas, other dolphins, and whales are deeply disturbed by both high and low frequencies emitted by large ships, including increasing communication and experimental signals from naval vessels. In addition to affecting metabolism, frequencies can incite fear and anger. 

The toxic mix of dissonance and pollutants along with the serious decline of their food supply are certainly enough factors to bring orcas to a breaking point.

The continued abuse of their species by humans is revelatory in understanding the crisis. Over the last sixty years, some orcas have been captured and trained for entertainment at marine parks around the world, including in Spain and France. They are often isolated and held under horrific conditions. A very small number of the orcas in captivity have become violent, particularly when separated from their young. 

Under extreme duress, they do lose their patience. Orcas are generally known to be extremely perceptive, resourceful, and tolerant, with few known attacks on humans. While their planetary co-habitants have been methodically destroying the ecosystems of the Earth, causing the extinction of innumerable life forms, and destabilizing oceanic equilibrium — up until recently orcas have remained relatively passive.

However, with the dramatic increase of detrimental changes, the orcas’ interaction with ships is overtly synchronous with both the direct impact on them and a general existential planetary crisis. Considering their plight and perspective, it’s not hard to imagine why their only recourse is aggressive behavior.

This is the only explanation that makes sense. The Earth’s ecosystems are far enough out of balance that the most sensitive animals on our planet are sending us a vital message.

The orcas certainly have been getting a response from those on the vessels, government agencies, and the press. Initial reactions are mostly limited to how they impact sailing, fishing, and other ocean activity. Yet they have succeeded in generating a viral response, in that the strategy has generated unprecedented widespread news media coverage. A web search for orca attacks produces links to tens of thousands of articles on news websites, either sensationalizing the events or attempting to understand them.

The reality of our own plight stares us in the face as we receive urgent communications from a highly evolved species. Their actions represent a dire warning; without directly injuring anyone, orcas have initiated a campaign to awaken us to the perils of our arrogance and ignorance.

Whether interpreted as hostile deviance, messages of distress, or a general alarm, the change in orca behavior is of incomparable historical significance. As if in a tale of the indigenous peoples of the Americas or in a Homeric myth, the metamorphosis of orca behavior, where they begin threatening vessels at sea, is an ominous portent of impending disaster.

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