Were the kids ever in danger?

[Brian D]

View the video and give us your opinion. I am sure none of us are Marine Biologist here so unless you have a degree in Marine Biology, ever one has their opinion.

In my opinion, from the kids perspective, it looks like they may have thought them to be sharks. Maybe, I say. But I did some reading and found that Orcas do not usually attack humans. So with that in mine, I doubt the kids were ever in any real danger. Regardless of the hype on the video. The parents or who ever was doing the videoing were right to tell the kids to stay in place.

What do you think you would have done in this situation?

 

[shemandr]

Don't know a lot about Orcas but I do know they hunt in packs and can be very smart about how to get their prey. For that reason I think the kids were in peril. There is nothing "Cool" about that and that's an experience of a lifetime that I wouldn't want. Orca's eat warm blooded animals. Humans don't get a pass even if we freed Willy.

 

[uncledom]

An excerpt from David Kirby who has been a professional journalist for 25 years. His third book, Death at Seaworld, was published in 2012.
The truth is, orcas simply do not attack people in the ocean. 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. It’s possible the animal mistook the surfer’s wet suit for some kind of odd seal but was not interested in human flesh. The victim, who required 100 stitches, is the only known human to be injured by a wild orca.
He does mention that captured Orca's are a different story. Wild Orca's don't seem to be interested in humans as food, nor are any other cetaceans (whales dolphins and porpoises). I'm pretty confident in the internet on this one. I am also sure those kids needed a change of shorts and so would you or I.

 

[SG]

I thought the idea of not trying to turn you legs to them was a good idea. Easier said then done. Staying calm is intuitively the thing to do.

I'm not sure they were in danger, Those creatures, in a film I saw from the California coast, can kill Great White sharks if they are of a mind.

 

[justsomeguy]

What do you think you would have done in this situation?

I'd have likely held my breath.
There's really not a damned thing one could do. These animals practically rule their environment.

"Danger" is a relative term.

 

[Gene Neill]

Hmm. Two tiny, helpless mammals ... in the immediate vicinity of two 12,000 lb apex predators.

What would I have done? Hmmm ... put it this way ... if I were in the water, my reaction would have closely mimicked that of an octopus.

 

[SFS]

As a scuba diver, I have decided, in advance, that there are two species I am getting out of the water for, if I have time. Orcas are one of those two.

 

[shemandr]

That little voice in my head says just drop it but I have to respond. Do people not get attacked by Orcas because we don't normally swim were they are? If humans swam where they frequent maybe we become the prey of choice? Statistics can say a lot but not everything. They were once called "Killer Whales." Now they've been reconstructed into fuzzy warm creatures. There are dolls depicting them. They are still vicious killers like many other apex carnivores such as lions and tigers.
If I were in that situation, and I like to swim, I would not be comforted by a journalist nearby saying not to worry - they never attack humans.

 

[justsomeguy]

Now they've been reconstructed into fuzzy warm creatures.

I say we keep that image. Humans are just as vicious, if not more so.

What's the point of fearing that which you cannot control?

 

[Will Gilmore]

If I were in that situation, and I like to swim, I would not be comforted by a journalist nearby saying not to worry - they never attack humans.

We know what they CAN do and we know they play with their food and we know their food is about human sized and we know they know we are not orca. What's to worry about?
Remember that ex California surfer dude turned amature grizzly bear whisperer? He went around the country lecturing on the docile nature of bears and how they never attacked people unless provoked, cornered or their cubs were threatened. He would go into the woods and hang with the bears. One year it had been a hard spring and those bears he knew so well ate him and his girlfriend. They came into his camp. Went out of their way to get him. They were just that hungry. Now, think about what is happening to the fisheries all across the globe. Can we be sure the pair of orca we see are well fed?

They are scary creatures. Actually, one of the few tool users in the animal kingdom.

- Will (Dragonfly)

 

[justsomeguy]

Actually, one of the few tool users in the animal kingdom.

This statement falls a mite short of the truth.

 

[Will Gilmore]

This statement falls a mite short of the truth.

I researched a paper on orca for my high school biology class. Not a solid academic work, by any means, but it represents a lot of what I know about orca.
One of the things I read, in 1979, was that orca had been observed to use the carcasses of fish to lure larger fish out of holes. This seems like tool use to me. Where they work as a coordinated group to generate a wave to tilt an ice flow and knock a seal into the water, the wave is a manufactured tool.

Coordinated attack, teach young, tool users = SCARY!
Crows, gulls and terns (not including nest building), sea otters, octopi and the great apes are the other creatures who use tools. I don't know about octopi, but crows and great apes are the only ones, I know of, who actually manufacture or modify objects to make a tool.

-Will (Dragonfly)

 

[Will Gilmore]

What do you think you would have done in this situation?

As the swimmer, nothing.
As the videographer, ditch the camera and run for a boat.

-Will(Dragonfly)

 

[justsomeguy]

This seems like tool use to me.

Yes, it is. I'm saying that more than a "few" members of the animal kingdom use tools.

 

[JamesG161]

As a scuba diver,

I was was trained on sea life danger. Also as a Naval Aviator.

I have had a 25' Hammerhead Shark circle me, close enough to have grabbed its Dorsal Fin as he passed a second time. I did have a 2 foot banded spear gun. I slowly back kicked to the beach.

Here is what I was taught, if the you are the lone object in the water , like the kids...
Option one...
1) Stay completely still, but be prepared to bonk/kick them on the nose. [don't yell "mama"]
2) Leave the water slowly

Option two, if the sea life is in a frenzy...
1) Scream in the water ( this perhaps easiest).
2) Splash down with hands to create a lot of air bubbles around you.
2) Leave the water slowly

Jim...

PS: Yes, I have all my legs and arms.

 

[Kings Gambit]

Anytime you're close to a wild animal in the wild that is substantially larger than yourself, you're at risk of being mauled, or even attacked as "food." There's really nothing else the kids could have done by the time they noticed the whales coming toward them. Thankfully, they were not hurt. I noticed when I visited Sydney, AU a few years ago that semi-enclosed "cove beaches" where children played and swam were protected at the entrance by nets, evidently to keep sharks out.

 

[Calif. Ted]

This "family" was tossing around a gutted seal like a football, presumably teaching the kids. One of the males always comes over to check you out when you approach. I think it's a bad idea to swim with them on purpose.

 

[shemandr]

I was driving to Riverhead today with the sun shining, "Blue Sky" cranking on the stereo and thinking about this thread. So it has interested me and I thank the participants for that.
anthropomorphism | ˌanTHrəpəˈmôrfizəm | noun the attribution of human characteristics or behavior to a god, animal, or object.
In my biology training this was frowned on. Beasts operate in their world according to a basic need to survive and reproduce. That is it. All the cerebral thinking, values, and emotions are humans projecting onto the beasts. Animals have no sense of right and wrong as we think of that. If they survive and reproduce it is right. If not it is wrong. They do not have morality.
For example the guy who yells to the Killer Whale from his boat actually tries the communicate with dialog. "He's aboard ... go away." Besides the obvious futility of his speech he is apparently not aware that the Killer Whale is simply trying to figure if further attack is worth the energy it takes. Maybe the whale thinks he can upset the boat. Mr. Dialog may then end up in the water as he is standing in a precarious spot. He is ascribing a human trait, reason, to a beast. If Mr. Dialog understood he is engaging in anthropomorphism, he might understand he could get killed getting between the beast and it's meal. There is much more on this subject but it's a dialog.
Do animals kill for fun?

 

[Sailm8]

 

[Kings Gambit]

anthropomorphism | ˌanTHrəpəˈmôrfizəm | noun the attribution of human characteristics or behavior to a god, animal, or object.

No where is this more wholeheartedly applied than in the arcane world of pet owners; particularly dog owners.