Tilley the Whale: Feared Killers of the Deep

Orcas are referred to as killer whales is a misleading interpretation. They aren't actually the killing type towards humans. The movie called Orca that I saw when I was little gave me the fear towards the mammal along with sharks in the famous movie Jaws. Why be in the ocean with the fact that two killers of the deep roam in the water awaiting their next meal because what if the human was the eye catching candy even though these animals don't normally see people as food? It could have happened to me when I came face to face with a shark.

The movie series Free Willy gave others, including me, that their cuddly softness is saying go ahead they won't bite. Pet their tongue. The humans can do damage to the whales. The nylon fishing lines can cut the whales and dolphins fins injuring them. The Vaquita porpoise is a common victim. We have only a few hundred left. People hunted them for their oil, meat and baleen which was used the way that plastic is used today. The show on the Discovery Channel called Whale Wars proves that the whaling ships give a bad name to the species while at the same time the people fight against these killings.

I was writing this when a certain headline in the news caught my attention. It made me change the direction I was going in for the original article. In the news, a trainer recently got killed by an Orca at Sea World. I still didn't change my mind. They aren't killers but I do believe that if you try to tame a wild animal and keep them from their natural habitat, we are going to have reprocusions because they are wild animals who have no idea what century they are in, and they will defend themselves aggressively if necessary. (This last sentence was taken but not word for word from Jurrasic Park.) The same goes for Tigers, Elephants, Bears and others. Anything could go wrong that the person is not expecting. When the animals realize that they are bigger and stronger than the human pushing them around, they will attack. Some animals like Keiko (the whale who played in Free Willy) love the affection humans can give while others prefer to be freed and left away from people. We should respect that.

Steve Irwin (known as the Crocodile Hunter) was a professional when it came to taking care of and saving wild animals. Look at how he died. A sting ray's tail got him in the heart and he died instantly or almost instantly. When sting rays sense danger they will swim away instead of attacking but they can still accidentally kill someone without even meaning to. Steve made his life about saving wild animals but there are lots of people who make these wild animals into the metaphor "a theme park ride" without even considering their feelings or thinking how they might be suffering, emotionally, mentally and physically.

I had the dream like a lot of people to become a trainer at Sea World, but my physical disabilities hold me back. My love for marine mammals is evident. I named my daughter after them, Marina. My sympathies go out to all the families who lost someone by doing this line of work which they loved.