It's always amazing to me that we have multiple intelligent (how intelligent is uncertain), social species right here on our own planet, and we spend such a tiny fraction of our energies as a society trying to communicate with them.
(Seals even rape them :'( http://www.bbc.com/earth/story/20141117-why-seals-have-sex-w...)
Causing harm to social intelligent species, such as by eating them, is objective. In theory another species could eat plants and also attack mammals for fun all the time. That species would also be assholes. This isn't a judgement based on 'diet', it's a judgement based on how they interact with others.
> since they protect those seals and sea lions
That's not the same logic. The same logic might lead you to call seals and sea lions assholes, but it wouldn't extend to the whales.
I think I know a species that does that.
I think I agree with you 100% based on what I think your comment reveals about your ideas. The point I was trying to make is that it's too often that we judge animal behavior based on our mental constructs, when I think it makes no sense at all even for the most intelligent of the animal species. Somebody pointed out that we are not so different from animals, and so it shouldn't be a big stretch to apply our labels to animal behavior. But I think we are so far from animal behavior that it makes it very difficult to analize/understand it without a really big effort and a long time of study. Scientists get very close, but internet comments are too often narrow-minded. Orcas are not 'killers', at least not more than any other predator. They are very intelligent and gregarious, and they eat other animals. Jumping from this to 'they are assholes' was, in my opinion, not called for. In what 'interaction with others' was this based on? I think a real judge would have a hard time trying to distill intent from animal interactions.
Your second point is completely right. But as a matter of fact, I think that both whales, seals, sea lions and all animals in general are all fine gentlemen. I have my doubts about that monkey pulling the legs (literally, and the tails) of two tigers, though.
Source? Also, what does "resident orca" mean in this context?
Both 'transient' and 'type B' eat marine mammals. Some 'type A' chase cetaceans also. The smaller of all 'Type C' eat fishes. Some species mix in a gradient and things can get very complicated. In the end we could have only one or up to nine species of killer whales here.
Do you think we'll ever reach a point where "real" communication would be possible?
Many of the smart things that dogs do are conditioned responses -- they adapt their wiring for pack behavior to human relations and are perceptive about many emotional and other cues.
I believe that whales have been observed performing more complex creative or problem solving tasks, and can probably communicate concepts between whales.
Reverse being true; if I was a whale, I'm pretty sure I wouldn't want to get involve in that human business and become so bitter that I'd lose the drive to be altruist ;-)