This video must be a few years old, because I remember seeing it and thinking exactly YIKES. My thought is that I feel really badly for the poor seal, but also for the orcas who are at the end of their rope, survival-wise, thanks to meddling by humans. On the plus side, these cannot be the critically endangered Southern Resident orcas who feed in the Puget Sound area (because they only feed on salmon), so I reckon that they must be a transient pod (if this is in the Seattle area). That means that they likely found a meal elsewhere (hopefully).
Well, I would NOT be busy filming the encounter and putting it on TikTok – I’d be calling the coastguard and asking them to send out some big boats to scare off the orcas!
The boat’s skipper (and the sealion) were lucky these orcas weren’t using the “wave hunting” technique that some Antarctic orcas have invented for washing seals off of ice floes:
I would be sitting perfectly still, gripping firmly onto something with both hands and wishing I had a bigger boat. Of course, I wouldn’t then have a cool video to show for it. I know those orcas gotta eat but I wouldn’t want to be witnessing it. I was mortified that one time a sparrow hawk picked a sparrow off the top of a stable right next to me.
This video must be a few years old, because I remember seeing it and thinking exactly YIKES. My thought is that I feel really badly for the poor seal, but also for the orcas who are at the end of their rope, survival-wise, thanks to meddling by humans. On the plus side, these cannot be the critically endangered Southern Resident orcas who feed in the Puget Sound area (because they only feed on salmon), so I reckon that they must be a transient pod (if this is in the Seattle area). That means that they likely found a meal elsewhere (hopefully).
Well, I would NOT be busy filming the encounter and putting it on TikTok – I’d be calling the coastguard and asking them to send out some big boats to scare off the orcas!
The boat’s skipper (and the sealion) were lucky these orcas weren’t using the “wave hunting” technique that some Antarctic orcas have invented for washing seals off of ice floes:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VyfOp_keW0A
I would keep him and name him George.
I would be sitting perfectly still, gripping firmly onto something with both hands and wishing I had a bigger boat. Of course, I wouldn’t then have a cool video to show for it. I know those orcas gotta eat but I wouldn’t want to be witnessing it. I was mortified that one time a sparrow hawk picked a sparrow off the top of a stable right next to me.
It’s hard to choose sides, isn’t it? Nature doesn’t have baddies. The seal is cute and they orcas are majestic.
Nature is horrible. See Dawkins’s A Devil’s Chaplain.
I was frightened out of my gourd. At first I thought they were sharks. Sharks, orcas, either way: I thought, “no wonder you (sea lion) are up here!”