Swimming with Orcas

Amazing Video Shows The Gentle Side Of Wild Killer Whales

By Anthony McLennan / Truth Theory

Even though we know that Killer Whales, or Orcas, do not attack humans, its still incredible to witness the gentle nature of these ocean giants.

For New Zealander Judie Johnson it was an experience of a lifetime as she got eyeball to eyeball with a Killer Whale mother and her two calves.

Ms Johnson was initially shocked to realize that it was Killer Whales and not dolphins which had joined her on her regular swim at Hahei Beach.

It was only after noticing the distinctive white coloring that she understood that it was a pod of Orcas which were keeping her company.

Orca attacks on people are virtually unheard of, though it must still be very intimidating to find oneself at the mercy of such massive beasts.

When they need to be, they can certainly be deadly killing machines. Even the much-feared Great White shark is no match for a Killer Whale, who are known to rip out and feast on the liver of their prey.

Killer Whales also snack on seals – which are not dissimilar in appearance to Ms Johnson in her black wetsuit.

Eye to eye with a Killer Whale

Ms Johnson however was undaunted and decided to take a second swim with the Orcas!

She described how the whale came up to within a metered of here, saying “We just looked at each other like that, with it’s huge eyes.”

The experience was captured by a local, Dylan Brayshaw, who rushed to grab his drone camera after he saw the drama unfolding about 25 meters offshore.

The video demonstrates the wonderfully curious and friendly nature of Killer Whales. Its also easy to see how easily whales can and have been hunted down by fishermen over the past few centuries.

Attacks by Great Whites on humans are certainly more common and there have been several recent instances in places such as Australia and South Africa.

However, a video which was captured last month on South Africa’s east coast showed how a group of surfers fortunately had their lives spared.

Orcas are reportedly the most widely distributed mammal on earth, apart from humans. The New Zealand population of Killer Whales is small – estimated to be around 150-200.

The creatures are actually most closely related to dolphins and can reach up to nearly 10 meters long. Their dorsal fins can protrude higher than a meter out of the water.

Image credit: Screen Shot

from:    https://truththeory.com/2020/07/16/amazing-video-shows-the-gentle-side-of-wild-killer-whales/

Giving Rights to Marine Mammals

Marine Mammals Need Rights, Too, Scientists Say

Jennifer Welsh, LiveScience Staff Writer
Date: 23 February 2012 Time: 08:15 AM ET
Killer whale and Weddell seal.
Killer whale and Weddell seal.
CREDIT: Robert Pitman/NOAA

VANCOUVER, British Columbia — Orcas mourn their dead, right whales have accents and dolphins like to have fun (and they “talk” in their sleep). Because of their special intelligence and culture, marine mammals should have their own set of rights, researchers attending the American Association for the Advancement of Science’s annual meeting here said.

“Because of their cultural sophistication these are enormously vulnerable individuals,” said Lori Marino, who studies brain and behavioral evolution in mammals at Emory University in Atlanta. “We have all the evidence to show that there is an egregious mismatch between how cetaceans are and how they are perceived and still treated by our species.”

Giving rights to cetaceans, the name for the group of marine mammals that includes dolphins and whales, would allow them better treatment under the law, including making sure they have healthy habitats and enough food to hunt and survive, as well as getting them out of captivity.

Special brains  

Scientists point to a few qualities of marine mammals when suggesting the animals deserve some basic rights: they are self-aware, display complex intelligence and even have culture.

“These characteristics are shared with our own species, we recognize them,” Marino said. “All of these characteristics make it ethically inconsistent to deny the basic rights of cetaceans.”

And what do they mean by “basic rights?”

“When we talk about rights, that’s a shorthand way to talk about the fundamental needs of a being,” Thomas White, of Loyola Marymount University in California, said at the symposium. He also draws the difference between “human” and “person,” similar to how philosophers distinguish the two: A human is a biological idea — Homo sapiens, to be specific, while in philosophy, a person is a being of any species with a particular set of characteristics that deserves special treatment. [10 Things That Make Humans Special]

“You have to have a species-appropriate understanding of rights,” White said. These include the basic set of conditions for growth, development, flourishingand even a rudimentary sense of satisfaction in life.

The researchers noted some areas where humans are stripping these animals of their rights. For instance, by keeping them in captivity we are exploiting their right to live in their natural environment without human interference, and taking away their right to physical and mental health, Marino said, adding, “The effects of captivity are well known. These animals suffer from stress and disease in captivity. Many captive dolphins and orcas show physical and behavioral indications of stress.” (Some endangered animals are kept in captivity for specially designed breeding programs meant to protect their population from extinction.)

PETA problems

The meeting comes on the heels of a recent ruling in a San Diego court that animals such as whales and dolphins don’t have human rights, shutting down a lawsuit from the group People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA), who had claimed that SeaWorld’s orcas were slaves. PETA claimed that the park broke the 13th Amendment of the Constitution — banning slavery — by forcing their animals, specifically the orcas, to work against their will for the financial gain of their owners.

San Diego District Judge Jeffrey Miller dismissed the case before the hearing even began. “As ‘slavery’ and ‘involuntary servitude’ are uniquely human activities,” he explained in his decision on Feb. 8, “there is simply no basis to construe the Thirteenth Amendment as applying to non-humans.”

His statement makes clear, Marino pointed out, why she and others are fighting for “person” status for marine mammals. “Without obtaining legal status as a person in the law there’s nowhere to go and there’s nothing that judge could have done in that PETA case, even if he wanted to,” Marino said. Before we start asking for legal action, she said, we need to get these animals their basic rights.

http://www.livescience.com/18611-marine-mammals-dolphins-human-rights.html