r/NatureIsFuckingLit • u/Agreeable-Rub2319 • 15h ago
đ„Fishermen Frees an Orca Tangled in Rope and Buoys
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u/sesameseed88 14h ago
Keeping the orca human peace treaty alive đ
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u/napierwit 10h ago
Now maybe they'll stop effing boats up in the Mediterranean
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u/useless83 8h ago
No no, I enjoy that.
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u/finchdude 6h ago
Yea we deserve it. Also in accordance with the peace treaty. If a select population of one species harms the other species. A small population is allowed to retaliate. To avoid revenge getting out of hand/fin
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u/stacyy681 15h ago
that's such a wild story, orcas are so smart and itâs amazing to see them help each other out like that. huge props to the fishermen for stepping in!
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u/DASreddituser 15h ago
im guessing they communicate with each other about events, including when humans help them out. So they maybe knew humans would help them because they know of other times humans helped orcas.
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u/SurayaThrowaway12 7h ago
Marine biologist Dr. Ingrid Visser has alluded to this regarding humans helping stranding members of the coastal NZ orca population:
I wondered if the behaviour was somehow linked to strandings and subsequent rescues. When stuck on a beach the animals go through an incredible amount of stress, yet they are very aware of what is going on during a rescue and will even attempt to help by doing things such as lifting their tails when you dig below them. If they are that aware of people helping them, perhaps they are also aware enough to make that connection once safely back in the water? Perhaps Digit had also stranded at some time in the past, been rescued, and this was what started her interacting with humans out on the water. She might even have attempted to interact with people before, but maybe they had been scared of the âkiller whaleâ which was approaching them? Or possibly because the same person, in the same boat, kept turning up again and again to watch her, she took the first step? It is hard to say, and we will never know if Digit stranded, but as the numbers of interactions with the New Zealand orca population spread I canât help but wonder whether this is the trigger.
The passage is from her book Swimming with Orca: My Life with New Zealand's Killer Whales.
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u/abluetruedream 6h ago
My first thought at the end of that video was what the orcas must be saying to one another. I can just imagine them giving the recently freed one a hard time⊠âSeriously Dave? Weâre supposed to be the smart ones! Youâre lucky that human had a knife and not a harpoon.â Dave: âWell, at least I didnât go around trying to revive a dead trend by putting a fucking salmon on my head.â
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u/a-stack-of-masks 14h ago
I mean if I got tangled up in whale hairballs you bet I'm returning them to the whales. Fuck that, clean up your mess.
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u/PansophicNostradamus 15h ago
And just like that... Faith in humanity (somewhat) restored! Thank you, kind fishermen!
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u/LePyloteAmateur 15h ago
I agree, for now! Still though, if I were the aliens, Iâd be installing a giant cage around this planet just in case lol
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u/TH_Rocks 14h ago
Speed of light is only a problem for us... and it always will be.
They're Made out of Meat | East of the Web https://www.eastoftheweb.com/short-stories/UBooks/TheyMade.shtml
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u/deepak1963 15h ago edited 14h ago
That smart whale knew you were saving it and will never forget your kindness.
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u/baby_smurfette 14h ago
an apex predator nicknamed, 'killer whale' is not what I'd call gentle. we're just lucky they don't go after humans. Regardless, awesome those fisherman helped out.
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u/a-stack-of-masks 14h ago
To be fair names can be deceiving. We have seahorses (tiny, can't ride em, don't do horse wheelies), water bears (not even bears, and out of all life on earth can actually contain some of the least water), fireflies who have no fire and aren't even really flies, and guinea pigs are non-pigs from the Andes or something. And don't get me started on the horny toad. At least orcas can kill and are pretty close to being a whale, so it's almost right.
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u/TheDaviot 13h ago
"Killer whale" was because old-time sailors saw them killing other whales, i.e. "whale-killers".
Calling them "orca" is arguably scarier, because it was originally just "orc" like the fictional monster, akin to "ogre", and meaning just "monster" or "hellion" (related to Orcus, the Etruscan god of the underworld).
Another obsolete name for the murder-dolphins is "grampus", an Anglo-Norman modified form of the Latin craspicis, which literally means "thick-fish" and referred to any large dolphin or toothed whale.
tl;dr: We stopped calling them "killer whales" so we could call them "hellions" instead.
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u/JigglymoobsMWO 13h ago
Who knows, they might see us as apex predators too. Might be one reason they don't attack us.
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u/Bitterwhiteguy 15h ago
Can I just point out that the fishermen who freed the orca have reels of the exact same colored rope in the bottom of their boat?
I'm glad they freed the orca, but I cannot help but consider the possibility they were fixing a problem they created.
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u/TwelfthApostate 14h ago
⊠there are only so many colors of rope, and all of these boats probably source their supplies from the same one or two marine supply stores nearby.
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u/my1vice 14h ago
Yes, maybe they were fixing a problem that they created, but letâs also consider that it was totally unintentional that their net(s) tangled this orca.
The majority of humans tend to look at the world in 16m shades of gray instead of just black and white, and clearly those fishermen are part of that majority.
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u/weedtrek 14h ago
Its funny how it's not the fisherman boats the orcas are sinking.
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u/mintaroo 13h ago
Yeah, makes you wonder what it was that sailing yachts were doing to the orcas near Gibraltar in 2020...
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u/SilentSpader 14h ago
Mixed feeling watching this... there's a good chance they're the one put up the ropes, I mean rope with the same green color was on the boat, too
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u/Sarah_Cenia 15h ago
40% of plastic waste in the ocean comes from the fishing industry, entangling and killing countless animals.Â
Honestly, the best way to be the hero of this story is to boycott the whole industry by not eating fish.Â
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u/brewhead55 13h ago
I'm literally emotional watching this. Awesome stuff but it would be better if people just picked up after themselves.
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u/SurayaThrowaway12 11h ago edited 10h ago
There haven't been many documented cases of orcas outright approaching humans for help when entangled or when a podmate is entangled. There have on the other hand been some other cases of entangled orcas avoiding people trying to help untangle them. I am sure they are mentally capable of making the connection though, and they are also likely capable of communicating such information between each other.
As stated by marine biologist Dr. Ingrid Visser:
When stuck on a beach the animals go through an incredible amount of stress, yet they are very aware of what is going on during a rescue and will even attempt to help by doing things such as lifting their tails when you dig below them. If they are that aware of people helping them, perhaps they are also aware enough to make that connection once safely back in the water?
As a side note, if anyone was wondering, information about the feeding ecology of the orcas seen off of Chile is as follows. They appear to fairly generalist compared to various other orca populations:
In Chilean waters, orcas also appear to be more generalist predators than specialized on a single strict diet. Attacks on sei (Balaenoptera borealis lesson, 1828) and fin (Balaenoptera physalus linnaeus, 1758) whales have been published from Chilean Patagonia, but, until recently, prey had been mostly reported to consist of otariids, seabirds, and fishes (Capella et al. 1999; Hucke-Gaete et al. 2004; HĂ€ussermann et al. 2013; Capella et al. 2014; SchĂŒttler et al. 2024). Orcas in northern Chile feed on otariids, dusky (Aethalodelphis obscurus gray, 1828) and common (Delphinus delphis linnaeus, 1758) dolphins, and, possibly, fin whales; the spectrum of possibly predatory interactions also includes bottlenose dolphins (Tursiops truncatus montagu, 1821), leatherback sea turtles (Dermochelys coriacea vandelli, 1761), Humboldt penguins (Spheniscus humboldti meyen, 1834), and fishes (GarcĂa-Cegarra 2022; GarcĂa-Cegarra et al. 2024). Orcas in northern, central, and southern-central Chilean waters make use of anthropic fishing activities, pursuing South American sea lions (Otaria flavescens Shaw, 1800) alongside purse seiners (HĂŒckstĂ€dt and Antezana 2003, 2004; GarcĂa-Cegarra 2022). As around subantarctic islands, where orcas then omit bycatch fish species (Tixier et al. 2016), off Cape Horn, sympatric orcas take advantage of the Patagonian toothfish (Dissostichus eleginoides smitt, 1898) longline fishery to prey on catches, as in Chilean Patagonia (Hucke-Gaete et al. 2004), depredating neatly from the fishing hooks (Pitman et al. 2011; Tixier et al. 2016; Pitman et al. 2020; Amelot et al. 2022). Orcas in Chilean Patagonia also hunt southern hakes (Merluccius australis hutton, 1872)âby themselves (Capella et al. 2014), and by taking these prey items from fishing lines (HĂ€ussermann et al. 2013).
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u/FraggleRock_ 14h ago
We should all thank these fisherman for keeping us safe.
This story will be spread throughout the pod and continue the flawless record with orcas in the wild that no human in recorded history...you know the rest.
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u/qualityvote2 15h ago edited 14h ago
u/Agreeable-Rub2319, your post does fit the subreddit!