{"id":239218,"date":"2023-07-17T12:00:23","date_gmt":"2023-07-17T11:00:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/?p=239218"},"modified":"2023-07-13T08:08:13","modified_gmt":"2023-07-13T07:08:13","slug":"the-orca-uprising-whales-are-ramming-boats-but-are-they-inspired-by-revenge-grief-or-memory","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/2023\/07\/the-orca-uprising-whales-are-ramming-boats-but-are-they-inspired-by-revenge-grief-or-memory\/","title":{"rendered":"The Orca Uprising: Whales Are Ramming Boats–but Are They Inspired by Revenge, Grief or Memory?"},"content":{"rendered":"

A pod in the strait of Gibraltar has sunk three boats and damaged dozens of others, and their story has captivated the world. What explains this unprecedented behaviour?<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

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Killer queen? It has been reported that the Gibraltar boat interaction was instigated by a \u2018pod matriarch\u2019.
Photograph: slowmotiongli\/Getty Images\/iStockphoto<\/p><\/div>\n

11 Jul 2023<\/em> – <\/em>What\u2019s going on with the #orcauprising? You\u2019ve probably gathered the basics: orcas are \u201cattacking\u201d yachts<\/a>. To be strictly factual, since 2020, a small pod of orcas in the strait of Gibraltar has been interacting with sailing boats in a new way: ramming vessels, pressing their bodies and heads into the hulls and biting, even snapping off, the rudders. Over three years, more than 500 interactions have been recorded, three boats sunk and dozens of others damaged. Last month, the first instance of this behaviour was recorded in another place, when an orca rammed a boat near Shetland<\/a>. \u201cWhat I felt [was] most frightening was the very loud breathing of the animal,\u201d said the Dutch yachtsman targeted, Dr Wim Rutten, who had been fishing for mackerel. \u201cMaybe he just wanted to play. Or look me in the eyes. Or to get rid of the fishing line.\u201d<\/p>\n

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An orca with prominent ribs \u2013 visibly undernourished \u2013 nudges a boat in the strait of Gibraltar.<\/span> Photograph: Jeroen Hoekendijk<\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

There are two fascinating things about this. First, of course, what are the orcas doing? But the second is about another species entirely: us. Why do we like this story so much? Because we do: people \u2013 including me \u2013 love the idea of orcas attacking boats. Browsing through orca memes, there\u2019s an orca as the sickle in the hammer and sickle<\/a>, with the headline \u201ceat the rich\u201d, and a Soviet-style graphic of a heroic orca emerging under a superyacht<\/a>. \u201cWhat if we kissed while watching the orcas take back the ocean,\u201d reads one tweet <\/a>with 1m views, while a much-used image of an arm holding a microphone up to a captive orca has been repurposed endlessly to highly entertaining effect \u2013 I like one where it\u2019s \u201csinging\u201d a bespoke version of the Meredith Brooks classic<\/a>: \u201cI\u2019m a bitch \/ I\u2019m an orca \/ Sinking yachts \/Just off Majorca [sic] \/ I\u2019m a sinner I\u2019m a whale \/ Imma hit you with my tail.\u201d We\u2019re taking great pleasure in projecting extremely human narratives and motivations on orcas. But how wrong is that, and why does it appeal?<\/p>\n