Killer Whale Attacks On Humans - Wild Orca Attacks

Wild Orca Attacks

There are few recorded cases of wild orcas threatening humans; none have been known to be fatal.

• In the 1910s the Terra Nova Expedition recorded that killer whales had attempted to tip ice floes on which an expedition photographer and a sled dog team were standing. In this case the whales may have mistaken the dogs' barking for seal calls and grown curious.

• On 15 June, 1972, 43-foot wooden schooner Lucette (Lucy) was holed by a pod of killer whales and sank approximately 200 miles west of the Galapagos Islands. The group of six people on board escaped to an inflatable life raft and a solid-hull dinghy.

• On September 9, 1972, a Californian surfer named Hans Kretschmer reported being bitten by a killer whale at Point Sur; most maintain that this remains the only fairly well-documented instance of a wild orca biting a human. His wounds required 100 stitches.

• In August 2005, while swimming in four feet of water in Helm Bay, near Ketchikan, Alaska a 12-year-old boy named Ellis Miller was "bumped" in the shoulder by a 25-foot transient killer whale. The boy was not bitten or injured in any way. The bay is frequented by harbor seals, and it is possible that the whale misidentified him as prey.

• During the filming of the third episode of the BBC documentary "Frozen Planet" (2011) a group of orcas were filmed trying to 'wave wash' the film crews’ 18-foot zodiac boat as they were filming. The crew had earlier taped the group hunting seals in the same fashion. It was not mentioned if any of the crew were hurt in the encounter. The crew described the orcas as being very tolerant of the film makers’ presence. Over the course of 14 days they filmed over 20 different attacks on seals, many of which the film’s series producer Vanessa Berlowitz describe as training exercises for the young calves in the group.