Why do some people kill killer whales?

Answer 1

" The first records of commercial hunting of killer whales date back to the 1700s in Japan. During the 19th and early 20th centuries, the global whaling industry harvested immense numbers of baleen and sperm whales, but largely ignored killer whales because of their limited amounts of recoverable oil, their smaller populations, and the difficulty that whalers had in capturing them.[65] Once the stocks of larger species were depleted, killer whales were targeted by commercial whalers in the mid twentieth century. Between 1954 and 1997, Japan took 1,178 killer whales and Norway took 987.[102] Over 3,000 killer whales were taken by Soviet whalers,[103] including an Antarctic catch of 906 in 1979 and 1980 alone, prompting the International Whaling Commission to recommend a ban on commercial hunting of the species pending further research.[102] Today, no country carries out a substantial hunt, although Indonesia and Greenland permit small subsistence hunts.

Killer whales have co-operated with humans in the hunting of other whales.[104] One well-known example were the killer whales of Eden, Australia. Whalers more often considered them a nuisance, however, as they would gather to scavenge meat from the whalers' catch.[104] Some populations of killer whales, such as that off Newfoundland and Labrador, may have been reduced significantly by whalers shooting them in retaliation.[15]"

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