Quotes About Orcas

I can only envision and feel the pain of these animals being stuck in a tiny aquarium. Normally, orcas swim 100 miles a day. They're free in the ocean.

I write many essays on whales. I love whales, especially orcas. And dolphins.

Following the shocking death of a trainer working with one of the killer whales just after a performance in February 2010, SeaWorld withdrew its orca trainers from the tanks at all of its parks. Now, no trainers will be in the water during any killer whale performances—at any SeaWorld park. Yet the theme of this show, One Ocean, which debuted in April 2011, is that humans and animals are connected, that ours is "one world united by one ocean," the narration says.

Recently, we have learned that some matriarchal, long-lived whales, such as orcas and belugas, also experience menopause. Grandmother whales increase the survival of their grand-offspring by passing on freshly caught salmon to young calves and guarding them on the ocean surface while their mother takes off for a deep dive.43

They would herd the large whale into shallow waters close to a whaling vessel, allowing the whalers to harpoon the harassed leviathan. Once the whale was killed, the orcas would be given one day to consume their preferred delicacy—its tongue and lips—after which the whalers would collect their prize. Here too humans gave names to their preferred orca partners and recognized the tit-for-tat that is the foundation of all cooperation, human as well as animal.45

waters off Vancouver Island are home to Chinook and coho salmon, rockfish, lingcod, and the giant halibut—the major carnivore fish of the Pacific Northwest. Now, a new species of carnivore has made this oceanic waterway its home. The orca are transients, the resident killer whales having mysteriously vacated the area weeks earlier. There are six whales in the pod: two mature females, two calves

Orcas are my spirit animal. That's my favorite mammal.

Actually, orcas aren't quite as complex as scientists imagine. Most killer whales are just four tons of doofus dressed up like a police car.

What a lot of the public doesn't know, and I'm sure my fans aren't aware of, orcas have died living at Sea World, and that has not been from old age.

I began to question NWF's position on killer whale displays and I became more skeptical of NWF's pro-captivity arguments, which parroted SeaWorld's talking points. After all, NWF openly supported hunting and trapping; they were hardly in a good position to suddenly get maudlin about the suffering of orcas in captivity.

Actually, orcas aren't quite as complex as scientists imagine. Most killer whales are just four tons of doofus dressed up like a police car.

For a long time, humans have wondered about the possibility of intelligent life on other planets while ignoring the intelligent life on this one. Orcas have a language and a culture that predates ours, so how do we justify imprisoning them or, more importantly, destroying their habitat?

Every bar that's set to prove human superiority to orcas seems to be as easy for the whales to jump as the hurdles set out for them at SeaWorld. Orcas fit every definition for humanity humans have come up with that doesn't require opposable thumbs.

The only intelligence tests orcas don't pass are the ones that require hands.

Orcas and some other large whales have spindle neurons in their brains. These are cells that process emotion humans thought existed only in apes and us. Spindle neurons have been called the cells that make us human. They're the part of the brain that deals with complex emotions like love, guilt, grief and even embarrassment. Since these are the cells that allow us to feel deeply, isn't it likely they do the same for orcas?

Orcas continually prove there are more things in the ocean than are dreamt of in our science.

Scientists warn that if orcas can't survive, we won't either.

The book references whales attacking humans, which has never happened... until July 2020 when orcas started ramming boats off Portugal and Spain. Perhaps some of the book's other predictions will come true.