ORCA-strating a WHALE lotta trouble.
Hello, friends, and welcome back to the blog. I'm sure that many of you have already heard by now about the orcas that are attacking boats. If you haven't, then as Mr. Arnold says in Jurassic Park, "Hold on to your butts." Orcas have been reported attacking and sinking yachts off of the coast of Europe. No one was reportedly harmed. It's only the property that is getting damaged. This has sent waves across the internet with people picking sides; either Team Yachts or Team Orcas. It is like some hilarious version of a fighting video game like Street Fighter or Mortal Kombat except taking place out on the ocean.
This rather reminds me of the Maritime Yochtters artwork that I put together several years ago; another nautical meets animal-themed work. I'm wondering if it would be fun to create a miniseries of illustrations in the style of Street Fighter II or Mortal Kombat where I can have the Yochtters vs. the Ocrooligans. It could be fun and funny in some sort of fan art-related kind of way. lol. (click on the Yochtters illustration to read more about them.)
So what exactly happened? On May 4th 3 orcas (one large and 2 small) struck a yacht off the coast of Spain. The small orcas flanked and shook the rudder while the larger orca repeatedly backed up and rammed the ship until the rudder was pierced. Spanish coast guards rescued the crew and towed the boat to Barbate, where it sank at the port entrance. Two days earlier, a pod of six orcas attacked a sailboat that was also navigating the same Straight of Gibraltar. A passenger aboard the ship remarked on how a mother orca was teaching her calf how to charge into the rudder. "It was definitely some form of education, teaching going on." says passenger Greg Blackburn. Reports of these aggressive encounters, that began in May, have continued and become more frequent throughout as the summer continues.
The pattern seems to have formed with these particular kinds of attacks. They seem to be directed at sailboats and yachts. The orcas approach from the stern to strike the rudder, then, once the boat is successfully stopped, they lose interest and leave. This leaves the boat to usually begin sinking. These attacks have been reported as far back as 2020. With over 500 recorded events, only 3 ships have sunk so far. Orcas may attack one ship out of every hundred that sail through the straight. One could laughingly argue that the orcas might be classists, but I'm only joking.
Why are they doing this? Is it payback after so many orcas have been caught in the wild and placed in captivity? Is it nature's revenge on man in some sort of Moby Dick type of way? Is this the karmic balance of what horrors we learned about orca captivity in documentaries like Black Fish? Is it climate change? Some researchers believe that a traumatic event may have triggered a change in the behavior of one orca, but through social learning, this behavior has spread through the rest of the pod. Is it possible that these attacks are by a singular pod of orcas? With so many reported incidents, it doesn't seem likely. Each orca pod has its own language. Social learning wouldn't spread from pod to pod because they don't communicate in the same way. Each pod is essentially a completely different country that speaks a completely different language.
Another theory is that this just might be a playful behavior that catches on with the other orcas and it just gets out of hand not knowing how damaging the behavior actually is. There is also a theory of sensory pleasure from ramming into the fiberglass structure itself. There are some Canadian orca pods that derive sensory pleasure from rubbing themselves against the smooth stone. The truth of the matter is we just don't know why they are doing it. However, there are 2 things for certain. The first is that the orcas perceive this behavior as advantageous, despite the risks that they run by slamming into moving boats. The second is that the entire world of human beings, right now, is fascinated by this. lol.
Personally, I am definitely Team Orca. I'm so amused by this strange and aggressive behavior. Why so mean, Butter Bean? (I say this to my cat all the time when she bites me.) So, it is no surprise at all that these events inspire me to do some illustration work related to them. I thought it would be fun to represent the orcas as a group that definitely knew what damage they were causing and rather enjoyed it and having the best time being menaces to the open ocean society at large. Orcas are usually portrayed in art as cute and approachable, and understandably so. They are usually very friendly and curious toward humans in the wild. I wanted to turn this perception on its head and portray them as the Hooligans they are being; Roughians, Thugs, Brutes. lol. The idea of it just made me giggle.
A friend of mine mentioned to me, today, when I had sent the finished illustration to them, that a pirate version could definitely be amusing. I admit I had thought about pirates as well and that would definitely be something fun to illustrate, an orca in a pirate's costume. I thought that it muddled the connection to the events, because of the time period. Also, it might make the reference too obscure. When I mention Orcas as Hooligans, people tend to know exactly what I am getting at. Lastly, my argument against Pirates vs. Hooligans is this: Pirates destroy in order to obtain (usually) they are in search of loot, of something valuable. It's the difference between a thieve's attack and that of a hooligan. A hooligan likes destruction and violence for its own sake. That in and of itself is what is so satisfying to them. And these orcas only seemed to destroy for fun and then leave. They weren't holding the passengers by sword's point and robbing them afterward.
So, Hooligans, right? Working on my Orcooligans reminded me a lot of an illustration I did for a story a Wrote previously called Mickey Night, a British-inspired "Halloween" ghost tale about what goes around, comes around. (you can click on the illustration below to read more about them and the short story, if interested.) In "Mickey Night" I illustrated another trio of young hooligans. I wanted to make sure that my Orcooligans were different from these in both attitudes and in the clothing that they wore.
My Orcooligans are each wearing a tracksuit, a denim jacket, a hat, and T-shirt, and a hoodie with a face scarf. They were inspired by more British versions of Roughians, rather than American ones. I really wanted the physical qualities of an orca to show, particularly the physical black-and-white markings on their bodies. Since I also wanted them to be wearing wardrobes that would be associated with thugs and roughians, this was quite a challenge to accomplish. I arrived at a solution to "show" the body markings through the design on the garments themselves. I also included an anchor icon on each of the outfits in some way. I wanted them to also have a direct visual connection to the nautical world of boats, the very thing they were actively destroying. While they also share a similar pose as the hooligans of the Mickey Night illustration, my intention with their pose and compositional position was to emulate the shape of an ocean wave; a wave that was rising high to crush whatever boats may be sailing its waters.
While the purpose and reason for these orcas attacking and sinking boats is not clear, what is apparent and always true is that Nature always wins. In any story where it's man vs. nature... Nature always always wins. This incident reminds me of apocalyptic films where nature takes human beings to their extinction event. It's almost as if these orca attacks are just part of what will become a long list of what takes out mankind. I can't help but be reminded of the film The Happening where nature decides that enough is enough and finds a solution to the human problem that is destroying the ecological system of this planet. I hope this is not the case. We all want to live, but I suppose that the dinosaurs also wanted to live. Maybe there were prehistoric orcas that attacked the prehistoric yachts of the dinosaurs?... You never know. Anything is possible.
Maybe we should all spend the weekend by the swimming pool instead. lol... much safer. This is a good way to stay clear of any of the Hooligans and Roughians of the Open Waters. I leave you with a couple of my favorite memes about these incidents. Since no one really got hurt, we can all still laugh.
keep making art.
Cheers,
LEWIS
Comments
Post a Comment