TakePart is the digital news and lifestyle magazine from Participant Media, the company behind such acclaimed documentaries as CITIZENFOUR, An Inconvenient Truth and Food, Inc. and feature films including  Lincoln and Spotlight. Killer whales are known to be quite friendly creatures – just as long as you’re not what they usually have on their “plate”, that is. The killer whale or orca (Orcinus orca) is a toothed whale belonging to the oceanic dolphin family, of which it is the largest member.

"I've seen these orcas grow from babies, I know their life stories, I've never seen or heard of attacks." “There's a lot of room for interpretation in terms of the whale's intentions,” Howard Garrett, cofounder of the Orca Network in Washington state, wrote in an email. As I wrote in Death at SeaWorld, a mammal-eating transient orca bit the leg of a Northern California surfer in 1972, then immediately let go. Halliday speculated the whale itself may have severed the line, and noted that when Gavin’s bag floated to the surface, it was dragged back down underwater. Killer whales are the only predators that regularly kill and devour Pacific white-sided dolphins off the B.C. It would also be useful, Garrett added, to know what was in Gavin’s catch bag and how his arm was freed. Killer whales have been around about 11 million years. The victim, who required 100 stitches, is the only known human to be injured by a wild orca. It’s also possible that the whale was simply playing with an unexpected toy. It will be interesting to see if SeaWorld comments on the New Zealand incident and claims that this was, indeed, an attack on a human by a wild killer whale. David Kirby has been a professional journalist for 25 years.

There are a few theories about why orcas don’t attack humans in the wild, but they generally come down to the idea that orcas are fussy eaters and … Compared to them, we are a relatively new species on the planet. It’s possible the animal mistook the surfer’s wet suit for some kind of odd seal but was not interested in human flesh. coast. There is not one single record of a killer whale attack on a human in the wild. The cetacean was probably “panicked from the feel of the line and the man got dragged along with it,” she added. Opinion is divided over whether captive orca attacks on humans are deliberate, but there is evidence to suggest that captivity has a detrimental effect on the animals' mental health, as well as their physical wellbeing.. There have been attacks on humans by captive killer whales, some fatal. His third book, TakePart is the digital news and lifestyle magazine from. Many experts are skeptical. But the rope came loose, and Gavin, after removing his weight belt, floated to the surface. Or maybe the whale didn't care if the human went down.”. “There was a real concern the orca could still have the line attached,” The Herald reported.

Though local media characterized the harrowing incident as an “attack,” many people who work with wild orcas are not so sure. Orca teeth, much like all dolphins and marine mammals, are designed to grab prey, but not to chew, and so they must swallow their quarry whole or tear it to pieces.

The pod rammed the boat for more than an hour, during which time the crew were too busy getting the sails in, readying the life raft and radioing a mayday – “Orca attack!” – to feel fear. 1960s. “According to the story, the whale never actually touched the guy.”, The article doesn’t indicate the length of the rope, “so we don't know the distance between him and the orca, but he says there were too many little white bubbles to be able to see,” Garrett said. It’s possible the animal mistook the surfer’s wet suit for some kind of odd seal but was not interested in human flesh. Keto the orca was born in captivity and appeared at water parks in water parks in San Diego, Ohio, Texas and the Canary Islands, but in 2009 he attacked his trainer Alexis Martínez