Tiger of the sea

Just when you thought it was safe to go back near the water.

The Times-Standard got a tip last week that people had seen an orca beach itself and grab a seal, mimicking a hunt more typically seen in Patagonia or the Crozet Islands in the Indian Ocean. It was an amazing tale, and one I found had quite a few witnesses to back it up.

Not surprisingly, I suppose, when the experts all said “may be the first ever” in the United States, people came out of the woodwork to offer up similar sightings. Not all stories were quite as dramatic. One guy called to say orcas hit seals and sea lions on the beach along the Klamath River “all the time.” A surfer wrote in to say that in 2000, he'd seen a killer whale chase a sea lion into shallow water -- just moments after they'd hauled their surfboards from the waves.

Another man wrote in remembering a story from May of 1985. He was at a bar watching the Celtics play the Lakers in the championship, and talking about a news report about a killer whale sighting. Apparently a group of school kids on a field trip to a beach just south of the Russian River watched with gaping mouths as a killer whale blasted onto the beach to snag a sea lion, tearing it to shreds in front of the class.

If any of these stories are real -- and at least most of them are -- then the potential “first ever” on the recent Trinidad spectacle is not applicable. (By the way, several inquiries were made about what happened to the seal. No one I talked to knows.)
Still, such a sighting is exceedingly rare at best. I had to wonder if a beachcomber had ever found himself suddenly half-swallowed by an orca with, perhaps, bad eyesight or an ear infection. But it turns out there have been no documented attacks of wild killer whales on humans. None documented, that is. The closest I could find was a young boy in Alaska splashing in the surf being bumped by an orca. Of course, if that whale wanted to eat that kid, it would have.

The orca is the tiger of the sea. The animal is beautiful, intelligent, vicious and incredibly strong. They form tight family bonds. They have specific tastes in prey. They learn and are innovative.

It's this last trait that holds hope that some of us might get to see such an incredible phenomenon again. It's not just a freak deal. The Trinidad orca's kids were watching, learning, almost certainly. It may be a year, or 10 years, or 20, but someday one of those kids may heave itself on shore and perform its brutal deed, and someone may get to see it.

This time, I hope someone has a camera ready.