Counterpoint: I’m on #TeamOrca
I’ve spent a good part of my career profiling animals. As a wildlife and science documentary producer for over two decades, I was fortunate enough to learn quite a bit about wildlife–from the dog in your household to great white sharks in Australia. And one thing about wildlife filmmaking is you see nature at its very best and its very worst.
The best natural history filmmakers in the world follow a code of ethics when producing a documentary. We do not interfere with the animal’s instinctual behavior. We do not trick or bait an animal into an action that would not be natural. And we do not anthropomorphize them. Translation: we do not give them overt human characteristics.
But that does not mean we cannot acknowledge similar traits or behaviors due to an animal’s physiology. Humans are mammals and share similar neurological and physiological anatomies. Dogs play and express joy. Elephants weep. Gorillas express anger.
In the past, the scientific world ignored these obvious expressions of emotion and proceeded to approach the animal world inhumanely. It allowed humans to approach animals from a supposed neutral position. In doing so, all sorts of cruelty rained down on the animal kingdom. Museums filled with taxidermied mega-fauna are evidence of this.
Recently, scientists like Jane Goodall, Roger Payne, the Leakey family and others have torn down this charade and opened our eyes to seeing the natural world in a new and more logical way. This includes orcas. I spent four years of my life developing and producing with Red Rock Films & James Cameron Disney+’s Secrets of the Whales, profiling the work of National Geographic Explorer Brian Skerry and some of the world’s top cetacean scientists.
Over and over again, we showed evidence that whales have culture. They form bonds with each other in ways very similar to humans. They have language. They mourn. They express joy. They collaborate in communities. And they pass intelligence down from one generation to another.
So I was curious about The Atlantic’s article Killer Whales are Not Our Friends by Jacob Stern. I too have been absorbed by the recent whale/boat interactions off the Spanish coast. So imagine my surprise by the tone of the essay.
In all honesty, the facts were accurate. Orcas do kill for fun. They do viciously kill prey including seals, other whales, rays and sharks, including the great white. I’ve seen exactly what an orca can do to an unsuspecting prey. It’s not pretty.
But nature is not always pretty. We filmmakers do our best to capture the wonders of the natural world because we are passionate about it and its inhabitants. I could go on and on about some of the horrors of the wild but unlike the author, I will not for one main reason.
The biggest horror of the natural world is man.
A recent study showed that the shark population is in serious decline especially around reefs, one of the most important ecosystems on the planet. Per the World Wildlife Fund, there are only 4,500 tigers left in the wild. Lions: between 23,000 - 39,000. Orangutans: less than 130,000. All of these animals are endangered because of humans. Habitat loss, poaching, pollution, game hunting…..human causes.
Orcas are endangered in many places on our planet as well, especially on the west coast of America. So are many other whales including blue, sperm, humpback, right, sei, gray, narwhal, bowhead, belugas and others. For these creatures, two of the biggest threats are boat strikes and commercial fish nets. In the past few months, twelve humpback whales have beached themselves on the NY and NJ coasts, adding to an additional twenty-three since the start of the year. Scientists theorize two likely causes: boat strikes and net entanglement.
And now, the orcas are damaging yachts around Gibraltar. Are they exacting revenge? Or is it play? Frankly, I don’t care. Science has shown that these whales possess both types of emotional intelligence. (If an animal can mourn the loss of its young, it can certainly hold a grudge.)
What I do care about is how we humans will react. Thankfully, nobody has been hurt during these interactions but I worry that someone will decide the only solution is to exterminate the pod. I worry that the entertainment of a few will outweigh the cultural knowledge and legacy this orca culture possesses. And I worry that it will be easier for many to demonize these creatures than find a humane solution.
I am on Team Orca because for one, I always root for the underdog. But mainly, I am Team Orca because while killer whales may not be our friends, they aren’t as bad as humans.
