December 17, 2018 — Longtime Alaska fisherman Bill Harrington has a few choice words about killer whales.
“As far as I’m concerned, they’re only thieves in tuxedos,” Harrington says.
He’s retired now, but a video from a decade ago shows him pulling in his line as he curses out a pod of killer whales swarming his boat. His catch is exposed; he is not happy. A sperm whale bursts out of the water and Harrington tells them what he really thinks. He knows even just a couple of killer whales could pick his line clean.
The video was taken a decade ago and Harrington says the problem of whales stealing fish off longlines has only gotten worse.
Harrington and his crew would travel a hundred miles or more and bait thousands of hooks attached to a commercial fishing line by hand. They would then anchor the line to the ocean floor between two buoys.