Despite its rather ominous name, the killer whale isn’t a threat to humans—at least that’s the message educator and author Randall Eaton is trying to get out to the public.
Eaton will be leading several expeditions to the San Juan Islands in Washington’s Puget Sound this summer to teach people about orca whales in their natural habitat.
“I want people to experience the intelligence, power, beauty, and grace of these creatures,” said Eaton, who’s been studying whales for decades and has taught at some of the nation’s top colleges.
Eaton and his students will spend six days camping on Orcas Island and observing a well-known population of about 80 whales from boats and kayaks. Participants will also spend time watching Eaton film a documentary in which he interviews tribal elders and storytellers from the Salish villages of Puget Sound.
In fact, it was Eaton’s communications with the Salish people that helped him develop his theory on the behavior of orca whales.
“The coastal peoples have been in the water with these whales and hunting side by side with them for thousands of years, and there is not one single case known in memory or in storytelling about an orca preying on a human for food,” Eaton explained.
This information is especially relevant, Eaton said, given the recent media coverage of an orca that attacked and killed a trainer at the SeaWorld in Orlando, Fla.
“Overall, captive orca conduct toward humans has been stellar,” he said, especially when compared to other large predatory animals.
“People just don’t go out and capture adult male tigers or lions,” he said. “Most captive big cats have been hand-raised since they were cubs, but still they tend to attack people.”
Before orcas started breeding in captivity, Eaton said, all the whales at zoos and aquariums had to be captured in the wild.
So why did Tillikum, a large male orca who was captured in the wild, kill his trainer?
“When you confine orcas for a long enough time in something roughly the size of a swimming pool, their lives are very different,” Eaton explained. “They have no social life. The life they have in nature versus captivity is very different. They’re very social, cultural creatures with a complex social structure and ways of communicating.
“All I can think is maybe he went crazy,” he said. “I don’t know why he did what he did.”
At the time of the attack, media reported Tillikum had been involved with two other human deaths.
Eaton added that he believes whales’ captive living conditions should be improved, but so should people’s understanding of these majestic predators and their relationships with humans.
Many tribes have spiritual connections with the whales and have included them in their religious art and other rituals. The Makaw people, a Salish tribe, even believe that orca whales are “one step above God,” Eaton said.
“They admire and respect the whale not because he has dominated man [like the tiger or lion] but because they have shown the people restraint. They know how powerful and intelligent the whales are,” he explained. “The implication is not that orcas are above God, but they are above us—humans.”
Eaton said he views orcas as a model species because they don’t kill their own kind like big cats or humans; the females govern the population even though they are smaller than the males; and they have a very ethical relationship with humans.
“They have the stance of, ‘We won’t attack you, but if you attack us, we’re going to do something about it,” he said.
Contact News Editor Amy Asman at aasman@santamariasun.com.
This article appears in Jul 8-15, 2010.