Good point, but I always thought it interesting that there are no known fatal attacks on humans committed by orcas (in the wild).
Orcas are a really peculiar species with very finicky eating habits. Do you know some Orcas will only eat a very specific kind of fish? Others will only eat a specific kind of mammal, like sea lion, and it’s very uncommon for one kind of orca to eat outside its preferred diet. This diet differentiation is always ‘pod based.’ So, depending on what pod the orca lives in, that will determine its diet even though there may be abundant supplies of either of the food sources.
I don’t know if that’s unprecedented in nature, but it is unusual with most animals, particularly apex predators, being opportunistic eaters.
Wonder if the fishing boats mainly catch the fish these orcas eat?
You are correct. Here in the Pacific North West, the resident pods are all fish eaters (mainly salmon, of course) while the wandering/vagrant pods predate on pinnipeds (seals and the like).
With the salmon numbers appearing to drop, there is concern for the health and survival of the resident pods.
We’ll see. I’d like more transient whales anyway. I hate it when a seal steals the fish off my line.
There is documented history in Australia of Killer Whales cooperating with local whalers to herd whales into a kill zone and even notify the whalers that they had prey located then lead them to the whales. After the kill the whalers would leave the whale overnight for the orcas who only feasted on the tongue.
This went on for decades on either side of the turn of the 19th century.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Killer_whales_of_Eden,_New_South_Wales
In so far as we have populations of orcas with different behaviors, and a lack of intergroup mating despite contact, different coloration, and distict genetics, some biologists think there are two or more distinct extent speacies within the genus Orca, rather than subspecies.