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Comment by koheripbal | Hacker News Reader

This comment is strange. Sperm whale from Moby dick's era routinely flight back when harpooned.

Today's killer whale behavior is clearly new, and nearly the only violent behavior seen in any whale in a hundred years. .. and with multiple recent reports, it is a new trend.

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I'm skeptical it is new. An orca ran into a boat causing no injuries or real damage. If this had happened 10 years ago would it have been reported in any way - either on the news or by a database?

I think an easier explanation is someone started tracking this and now boat owners know to report it, because they have heard that someone is tracking it.

There is now an Orca Reporting form: https://www.theca.org.uk/orcas/interaction-report-form

I believe it is only running since 2020. I realize the argument you are making is that it was created/publicized AFTER a couple orca attacks. I'm suggesting that if this online portal had existed for anytime in history you would have gotten reports consistently. I would wager this is mostly, if not all, an observation bias.

It got in the news in 2020 when it happened near Gibraltar; since then it has been reported in the news many times, 250 attacks near Gibraltar have been reported.

And now last week one near Scotland, and this one this week.

Surely if it happened all the time, and it was in the news for so long, it would have been noticed and reported from all over the world?

But the 2020 incident could have just captured the media attention arbitrarily because of good timing. If there had been a similar attack in 1980 would it have captured the media attention so much without the internet? Probably not.

I dont know every incident but this one in Scotland involved an orca ramming into a boat and causing zero injuries and no actual damage to the boat. How would this even have been reported before the internet? A tv anchor decides to dedicate a minute of their broadcast to describing a boat that collided with an orca?

Yes, I understand your point about the past. But at least since 2020, these things are news, and widely reported.

And if it were normal behaviour, we'd see it reported from everywhere.

Also they damaged a bunch of ships near Gibraltar, and sank three. That would have been reported before 2020.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orca_attacks

there are plenty of anecdotal reports dating back almost 100 years. there are reports here before 2020 of ships being destroyed.

yes I realize the hugeness of the numbers now is much larger than it was before 2020 - but again that is when the database was established which allowed anyone to submit a report, no matter the extent of the damage

Might as well be both, the Gibraltar pod going through a real fad and the combination of social media and attention caused be Gibraltar news giving baseline level occurrences elsewhere visibility like never before

its very possible. though im also skeptical than sailors in indonesia would think to log onto that website to report such an incidence. so still seems highly possible to me that it was super big news among sailors in the Iberian peninsula and now, only near there, are you getting consistent reports because those people know to report

Toward humans.

At least one pod has learned to hunt and kill great whites, which may not be new to orcas but was news to us.

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