Say Goodbye to Orcas: Why Storytelling Is Deadlier Than Killer Whales

As a storyteller, I know how powerful words are. And stories will decide the fate of killer whales— better known as orcas. This is why. 

Remember when the movie Jaws came out? I don’t, because I wasn’t alive back then. But I’ve felt the repercussions of the film for my entire life. My mom didn’t let me watch it until I turned thirteen because she was afraid to take a shower after seeing it herself in theaters. My dad still hums the theme song when we swim in a pool.

Jaws resulted in worldwide panic and the decline of shark populations everywhere. While most places never officially culled sharks, it was easier to turn a blind eye to the spike in unnecessary shark fishing because of the movie.

Orcas have been knocking around boats in the Iberian peninsula. Understandably, people are upset (if you haven’t heard about this yet, read  this Business Insider article, this BBC article, and this Live Science article).

When there’s rising tension between anything, humans begin using words like “out to get us,” “vengeful,” and “brutal.” These words paint a picture in the minds of the viewers. Whether that thing is a shark, a cell phone, or the weather, suddenly there is a story around it. For better or worse, viewers start to see it that way.

This is happening now— right now— with orca whales.  

Today made references to Jaws when covering the recent interactions that orcas have had with boats in the Iberian peninsula. 

The moment an orca kills a human— whether by accident or otherwise— it’s over for them. Now the stories and words we’ve been using are confirmed to be true. If the most popular opinion of orcas is that they’re monsters, we’ll only look for evidence of them doing monstrous things.

Orcas are internationally protected animals. However, protections can’t always be enforced. While governments wouldn’t go after orcas, individual people will. And just like the unnecessary killing of sharks, if the stories about orcas are all bad, it’ll be easier for the average person to let it slide.

While scientists are still nailing down exactly why the animals are doing this, there’s a chance it’s vengeful… and a chance it’s just playful.

Even if it’s play, having a five ton animal spin your ship in circles isn’t what I’d (personally) call fun. 

However, assigning morals to orca whales is a mistake. Using descriptors like “gang,” “hell-bent,” and “lying in wait” is not only embellishing the truth, but promoting confirmation bias. Just look at what happened to sharks. 

This phenomenon of storytelling and consequence is as ancient as humanity, one about fear and the unknown. It can and will happen again if we keep telling stories about orcas the way we are.

On the other hand, we can’t call orcas “sweethearts,” “kind,” or “good.” It’s just not true. These are complex animals with emotional processors that rival our own. Like humans, they are not 100 percent good or bad. They are capable of everything.

And on that note, who’d have thought our first contact with intelligent life would be from our oceans?

I’m not talking about weird, jelly-like animals crawling along the deep trenches of the sea— I mean orca whales.

There’s no question about it: orcas are smart! In fact, different groups of orcas around the world have different cultures. This means that everything from orca diet to behavior is different depending on where you are in the world.

It could also mean that a small group of super playful orcas is going to send the species over the edge.

Imagine aliens descending to earth, getting their ships graffitied by a bunch of teenagers, and all of humanity paid the price. Wouldn’t be very fair, would it?

While that may not be a great direct comparison, you get my point: tensions are rising.

So how do we talk about the events in the Atlantic? Two things must happen:

First we tell the truth. The orcas are ramming ships and exhibiting unusual behavior. It’s scary, but simultaneously, there are no recorded deaths by wild orcas. These animals are critical to their habitats, and despite this behavior, we need orcas alive.

Telling the truth is tricky since writers and speakers love to put a twist on things and allure their audiences with dramatic imagery. Which is where the second part comes in:

We, as readers and viewers, must take responsibility for the opinions we hear. For example, it’s okay to watch a scary movie, but once you stop eating mushrooms because you watched the show The Last of Us, you’ve lost touch with reality. 

In other words, it’s okay to joke and make memes about orcas, but once you start telling your friends that orcas are “murder dolphins” ask yourself why you believe that. Is it true? 

We, as audience members, need to know where to draw the line. If you change your own life without asking why, you’ve bought into an illusion. 

A good rule of thumb is that when you start using the language you heard from a source, you’ve most likely started believing what was told to you. 

Here is the takeaway: question your own opinions and find the truth. Indirectly, we all play a part in the future of orcas. 

We share this world with other intelligent life; if we kill what we don’t understand, we’ll never understand it. 

Sources

1. Beans, Carolyn. “News Feature: Can animal culture drive evolution?.” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America vol. 114,30 (2017): 7734-7737. doi:10.1073/pnas.1709475114

2. Gill, Victoria. “Have rogue orcas really been attacking boats in the Atlantic?” BBC News. Nov 2020. www.bbc.co.uk/news/extra/buqvasp1rr/orcas-spain-portugal

3. Marino, Lori, et al. “Neuroanatomy of the killer whale (Orcinus orca) from magnetic resonance images.” The Anatomical Record, vol. 281A, 14 Oct 2004, pg. 1256-1263. doi.org/10.1002/ar.a.20075

4. “Orcas sink 3 boats off Portugal and Spain, damage dozens others.” YouTube, uploaded by Today, 26 May 2023. www.youtube.com/watch?v=r5RigxI8iO0

5. Pare, Sascha. “Orcas have sunk 3 boats in Europe and appear to be teaching others to do the same. But why?” Live Science. 18 May 2023. www.livescience.com/animals/orcas/orcas-have-sunk-3-boats-in-europe-and-appear-to-be-teaching-others-to-do-the-same-but-why

6. Zitser, Joshua and McFall-Johnsen, Morgan. “Orcas sank a third boat. Scientists think these 'brutal' attacks may be trauma-driven.” Business Insider. 19 May 2023. www.businessinsider.com/portugal-orcas-sink-a-sailboat-and-ram-another-in-atlantic-2022-8