SHOCKER: Orcas are now hunting Blue Whales
I was flabbergasted by this news.
This “For The Win” article speaks about five orca families surrounding an adult blue whale and killing it. The article says this is only the fourth such sighting of such a phenomenon.
A witness is quoted saying that “watching nature unfold was “bittersweet.””
But why would this be only the fourth such sighting if this is how nature normally “unfolds”? Humans have been sailing the oceans for centuries, after all. Why would such a sighting be so rare?
The article says the answer without saying it:
“The first such sightings occurred between 2019 and 2021 off Australia, according to Smithsonian magazine. In each attack, between 50 and 75 orcas took part.”
2019?
So for centuries and millennias, humans never witnessed orcas surround and kill a blue whale. It’s never been a thing. The first time only happened six years ago around 2019.
The article quotes a scientist who is practically panting with excitement:
““This is the biggest predation event on the planet,” Robert Pitman, cetacean ecologist at Oregon State University Marine Mammal Institute, told Science News. “We haven’t seen things like this since dinosaurs were here, and probably not even then.””
Robert Pitman is talking like some boxing commentator watching the “big fight”.
In a tragic sense he’s right. It is a “big fight”. But not like some boxing match. In case you don’t know, blue whales are massive, the largest animals on the planet. Adult blue whales are gigantic.
This is a blue whale compared to an African elephant:
Here’s a blue whale next to other whales including orcas, with a human at the very bottom:
Orcas are huge, over 9 meters, yet still nothing in comparison to blue whales who can reach 30 meters long.
In nature, predators don’t normally go after prey that is so much bigger than them. It can happen but usually only in desperate circumstances. When very hungry, a predator family might gang up on a wounded larger animal who can’t fend them off. Even then, it doesn’t usually happen because the larger animal might still injure them. Why risk injuries when there is so much prey that is smaller, easier to catch, and doesn’t require so much risk, strength, or mass coordination?
Which brings me back to 50, 60, 75 orcas surrounding one adult blue whale in it’s full size capacity and gigantic strength. At that point, 75 orcas from different families all working together sounds less like hunting and more like they’re fighting a war.
If this phenomenon has only been seen since 2019, and even then only four times, then maybe it’s not “nature” unfolding.
Maybe it’s a shocking turn of events.
Maybe we should be alarmed.
Why are orcas surrounding the largest creature on the planet to hunt it? And why are so many orcas working together?
The answer is obvious.
Remember this?
Remember how orca mother Tahlequah carried her dead newborn baby for 17 days while the world watched her grieve? Remember how her pod mates stayed with her, protecting her so their family didn’t lose both mother and child?
I remember crying watching it. I’m a survivor of a 1,000 year old genocide and even I couldn’t imagine her pain.
““If you’re a whale or a dolphin, it means that you have to go down and pick that animal up as it’s sinking, bring it to the surface, hold your breath for as long as you can and then basically dump your baby off your head in order just to take a breath,” orca biologist Deborah Giles from the University of Washington told The Washington Post.
““It’s real, and it’s raw. It’s obvious what’s happening. You cannot interpret it any other way. This is an animal that is grieving for its dead baby, and she doesn’t want to let it go. She’s not ready.””
Guess what happened to that orca mother Tahlequah?
She lost a baby again. She again carried her dead baby for over 11 days.
“They are only about 75 whales in this population, and their birth rate for the last few years has been zero.
“Zero, as in no babies at all. Zero, as in 100% failure of infant survival over the last three years. According to the CWR, over the last two decades 75% of newborns in this population have not survived infancy.”
““The cause is lack of sufficient food resources in their foraging area,” Balcomb says. “There’s not enough food, and that’s due to environmental reasons.””
“All of this means, in short, the whales aren’t getting enough to eat. And without enough to eat, pregnancies aren’t successful, and babies die shortly after birth.”
Southern Resident Orcas such as this mother are “teetering on the brink of extinction with only 73 of the marine mammals remaining as of 2019.”
That’s what this is about.
The orcas are starving.
The orcas can’t keep their children alive in such conditions.
So the orcas are going extinct.
In such circumstances, wouldn’t any parent become desperate?
In such circumstances, wouldn’t any parent do whatever it took to feed their pregnant mothers, their children?
Their plight isn’t an accident freak of nature.
Imperialists have taken all the food, cut off the natural spawning cycles, and polluted the water, They’re starving to death intelligent sacred beings like orcas.
Orca babies are dying at birth because of what imperialism has done to the ocean.
It finally makes sense why orca families have started working together to hunt much larger prey. They are fighting a war. They’re fighting extinction. They’ll fight even giants — adult blue whales — to keep their babies alive.
““As the blue whale’s fate was sealed, orcas celebrated with breaches and tail slaps.””
Unfortunately, the orcas don’t realize their victory won’t last.
Blue whales were in trouble even before orcas started to hunt them. The blue whales are going extinct too.
The truth is, the oceans are dying. Again, it’s not an accident or a freak of nature. Imperialists have knowingly destroyed the ocean.
Notice how none of these “scientists” watching a blue whale get torn apart by 75 orcas seemed to give a damn except to gossip about how thrilling the big fight was to watch.
““This is only the fourth recorded instance of orcas hunting a blue whale here—an extraordinary reminder of their role as apex predators in the ocean.”” *pant pant pant*
The extinction of orcas and blue whales is not entertainment, imperialists.
The ocean is in a desperate state. Industrial fishing, dams that interrupt natural spawning cycles, a heating climate, ocean acidification, pollution -- the list of damage grows and grows, while life in the ocean shrinks and shrinks.
The basis of all life on this planet is the ocean. The food chain begins in the ocean. 50% of our oxygen comes from the ocean. If the ocean dies, we die.
I’m writing this because every month is Earth Month and every day is Earth Day and I can’t stand the lies.
Don’t believe your media when they tell you something is fun, exciting, thrilling. That only means they’re distracting you from the truth so that imperialists can continue to make money.
There is a lot you can do to help.
Indigenous people help simply by existing because protecting Indigenous culture is natural resistance to imperialism.
For non-Indigenous people, the number one thing is stop eating seafood from industrial fishing. Don’t give the industrial fishing industry money.
Non-Indigenous people can also help Indigenous communities take down dams that interrupt spawning cycles. Those spawning cycles are critical for ocean life.
Non-Indigenous people can also stop eating meat from industrial farming. The pollution from industrial animal agriculture that pours into the ocean is highly destructive to land and water.
There’s so much more you can do. For more information, go here.