Originally published at: Orca rams boat… 2,000 miles from the prior killer whale attacks | Boing Boing
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Well, yes, they are intelligent and communicate over vast distances.
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Is 2000 miles a lot? It doesn’t seem like a lot for whales.
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Next move: Private jets and helicopters.
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Orcanet
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Yes, the planet is ‘fighting back…’
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ORCA - The Orca Radio Communication Association
Or maybe the others are learning it from National Public Whale?
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So, you might say that the original Orcas were influencers? Quick, someone get them TikTok and a YouTube channel!
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Experts with the GTOA suspect the attacks are linked to human activities at sea.
No shit, Sherlock.
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The term “fad” was used in the original post. I surely hope so, because if this behaviour continues and spreads it is not going to end well for the Orcas, poor buggers.
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This weeks This American Life has a segment on this and their expert said she thinks these whales are doing this really just for fun…so yeah, a whale fad so to speak
So what does Monica think the orcas are doing? She thinks they’re playing. Stealing boat rudders is basically a fad. This has happened in the past. In the late 1980s, orcas in the Pacific Northwest started killing salmon and then wearing them on their heads like hats. They just did it for a year, and then they stopped. The last few years, they’ve started screwing around with fishermen’s crab catching gear, apparently just for fun.
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“I believe I speak for the entire human race when I say, ‘Holy fuck,’” said Oceanographic Institute director Dr. James Aoki, noting that the dolphin has a cranial capacity 40 percent greater than that of humans. “That’s it for us monkeys.”
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As was the style at the time.
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Came to post that same piece. Apparently this has happened before and it’s well documented that different pods have different fads like this that spread. It’s usually less destructive than this, but it’s apparently common for games to spread culturally among Orcas. Amazing animals!
She hypothesized that they’re going after rudders because they’re the lowest part of the boat, and they move. So, cats playing with string, basically, 
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