The only confirmed attacks by orcas that I am aware of, have been by animals in aquariums. They can usually not determine if the animal was just playing with the trainer, or actually intended harm. What I generally use as my evidence against TRYING to interact with an orca, is that in the wild even dolphins have caused severe harm to humans and they are quite small and share a similar countenance as orcas. There have been known aggressive behaviours by dolphins, yet some of the sever accidents were not known to be aggressive. Either way, an orca is merely a large dolphin that can be very excitable I believe. Just trying to play with you, it could unintentionally destroy you in seconds.
If you have ever seen the footage of whales hunting seals along the shorelines, you know what I mean. They toss the seals around, and up into the air, like rag dolls. Watching them hunt a bull sea-lion, they bash the thing into unconsciousness, or weariness, with their huge tails. These are transient whales though. Remember to look up the difference between a transient orca and a resident, they may as well be two different species of whale, due to their behaviours. Basically, residents almost solely eat fish.
Adrian, I saw the same show I think, was it about Montery Bay or something in California, where the Gray whale and her calf tried to cross? My memory recalls they ate the tongue first, but continued to consume the rest of the animal?
By the way if you like sharks and orcas, check out my post on an encounter with porpoises here in Tahsis:
http://forums.deeperblue.net/showthread.php?threadid=49669
or a six gill shark encounter:
http://quietdeep.com/scripts/site/writings.php (go to "In Memory of Grandpa")
