[cabbage]

Mind you I suppose the media image of dolphins as smiling friendly playthings is one of their best defences against us

It doesn't do them much good in Japan, unfortunately.

Swimming with dolphins is one thing. Swimming with pilot whales is quite another as this silly woman found out when she decided to "commune" with them

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D47wdwwYo94

thats terrifying! You have to ask why she didn't get out fo the water after the first 'attack'

[Sandra]

I'm still wondering what possessed her to get into the water with them in the first place.

If I saw things that size walloping through the water the way they were the last thing that would enter my head would be "let's play".

[Thylacine]

Killer whales have shown occasional tendencies to target people. Admittedly, most are captive so are a bit screwed up. There was that one in February
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/8535618.stm
there is another really spooky one on YouTube where a guest volunteer gets to ride on the orca which then refused to let her go and holds her with its mouth. Trainers intervene and she's released pretty shaken up (understandably) - this clip is still available but you've got to log in to see it (got to be >18years)

Here's a list of killers which kill http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orca_attacks_on_humans

The most interesting one (in my opinion) was the hunting of an Antarctic survey scientist by a group of killers which attempted to create a bow wave and flush him off an iceflow as they do seals. The attempt failed and scientist escaped! Sorry no reference for this one.

I've seen Orcas in the wild and up close in Vancouver Aquarium and they actually appear to me to look pretty nasty with their small little red eyes and massive size. Hits all my primeval fear buttons - I don't like big things in the water with me!

[cabbage]

Killer whales have shown occasional tendencies to target people. Admittedly, most are captive so are a bit screwed up. There was that one in February
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/8535618.stm
there is another really spooky one on YouTube where a guest volunteer gets to ride on the orca which then refused to let her go and holds her with its mouth. Trainers intervene and she's released pretty shaken up (understandably) - this clip is still available but you've got to log in to see it (got to be >18years)

Here's a list of killers which kill http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orca_attacks_on_humans

The most interesting one (in my opinion) was the hunting of an Antarctic survey scientist by a group of killers which attempted to create a bow wave and flush him off an iceflow as they do seals. The attempt failed and scientist escaped! Sorry no reference for this one.

I've seen Orcas in the wild and up close in Vancouver Aquarium and they actually appear to me to look pretty nasty with their small little red eyes and massive size. Hits all my primeval fear buttons - I don't like big things in the water with me !

Hits all my primeval fear buttons - I don't like big things in the water with me !
Ditto!

Thats really interesting, google says that the guy 'hunted' by the Killer Whales in the Antarctic was someone called Chris Pierpoint from the Marine Mammal Observer Association. It's mentioned briefly here http://news.bbc.co.uk/earth/hi/earth_news/newsid_8536000/8536184.stm but I can't find a primary account, all the google results I've looked at take you to secondary accounts mostly just repeating the BBC article. It sounds fascinating.

There's also one or two stories of people on beaches in Patagonia being rushed by Whales about to do that thing where they beach themselves to catch seals. All (the known ones!) aborted at the last moment presumably when the whale realised it wasn't a seal - though if they hadn't aborted I suspect we might never have known! Now thats a an image to give me nightmares tonight!