Editing Orca (section)

===Whaling===
{{Main|Whaling}}
[[File:Killer Whale (Old Tom) and whalers.jpeg|thumb|upright=1.2|The orca named [[Old Tom (orca)|Old Tom]] swims alongside a [[whaleboat]], flanking a whale calf. The boat is being towed by a harpooned whale (not visible here), near Eden, Australia.|alt=A killer whale swims alongside a whaling boat, with a smaller whale in between. Two men are standing, the harpooner in the bow and a steersman on the aft rudder, while four oarsmen are seated.]]

The earliest known records of commercial hunting of orcas date to the 18th century in Japan. During the 19th and early 20th centuries, the global [[whaling]] industry caught immense numbers of [[Baleen whale|baleen]] and sperm whales, but largely ignored orcas because of their limited amounts of [[Whale oil|recoverable oil]], their smaller populations, and the difficulty of taking them.{{sfn|NMFS|2005|p=39}} Once the stocks of larger species were depleted, orcas were targeted by commercial whalers in the mid-20th century. Between 1954 and 1997, Japan took 1,178 orcas (although the [[Ministry of the Environment (Japan)|Ministry of the Environment]] claims that there had been domestic catches of about 1,600 whales between late 1940s to 1960s<ref>{{cite journal|year=1998|title=海域自然環境保全基礎調査 - 海棲動物調査報告書, (2)- 19. シャチ ''Orcinus orca'' (Linnaeus,1758)マイルカ科|url=http://www.biodic.go.jp/reports2/5th/kaisei_h10/5_kaisei_h10.pdf|page=54|journal=自然環境保全基礎調査|access-date=January 14, 2015|archive-date=July 17, 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150717041428/http://www.biodic.go.jp/reports2/5th/kaisei_h10/5_kaisei_h10.pdf|url-status=live}}</ref>) and Norway took 987.{{sfn|Obee|Ellis|1992|p=34}} Extensive hunting of orcas, including an [[Antarctic]] catch of 916 in 1979–80 alone, prompted the [[International Whaling Commission]] to recommend a ban on commercial hunting of the species pending further research.{{sfn|Obee|Ellis|1992|p=34}} Today, no country carries out a substantial hunt, although [[Indonesia]] and [[Greenland]] permit small subsistence hunts (see [[Aboriginal whaling]]). Other than commercial hunts, orcas were hunted along Japanese coasts out of public concern for potential conflicts with fisheries. Such cases include a semi-resident male-female pair in [[Akashi Strait]] and [[Harimanada]] being killed in the [[Seto Inland Sea]] in 1957,<ref name=OSAKACEA>{{cite web|publisher=Osaka College of Eco & Animals|year=2011|script-title=ja:シャチ騒動|url=http://cblog-eco.oca.ac.jp/blog/2011/10/post-aa1b.html|access-date=December 24, 2014|language=ja|archive-date=December 24, 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141224113540/http://cblog-eco.oca.ac.jp/blog/2011/10/post-aa1b.html|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|publisher=The Whale Laboratory of [[Shimonoseki]]|year=2014|title=Stranding Base (1901–2012) for Hyogo Prefecture|url=http://whalelab.org/HyogoPRF.htm|access-date=December 24, 2014|archive-date=December 24, 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141224112918/http://whalelab.org/HyogoPRF.htm|url-status=live}}</ref> the killing of five whales from a pod of 11 members that swam into [[Tokyo Bay]] in 1970,<ref>{{cite web|publisher=The Whale Laboratory of [[Shimonoseki]]|year=2014|title=Stranding Date Base (1901-2012) for Chiba Prefecture|url=http://whalelab.org/ChibaPRF.htm|access-date=January 9, 2015|archive-date=January 9, 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150109080045/http://whalelab.org/ChibaPRF.htm|url-status=live}}</ref> and a catch record in southern Taiwan in the 1990s.<ref name=SmallCetaceansChina>{{cite journal|author=Kaiya|first1= Z.|last2=Leatherwood|first2= S.|last3=Jefferson |first3=A. T.|title=Records of Small Cetaceans in Chinese Waters: A Review|journal=Asian Marine Biology|volume=12|year=1995|pages=119–139|url=https://swfsc.noaa.gov/uploadedFiles/Divisions/PRD/Publications/Zhouetal95(26).pdf|access-date=December 24, 2014|archive-date=July 17, 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150717073608/https://swfsc.noaa.gov/uploadedFiles/Divisions/PRD/Publications/Zhouetal95(26).pdf|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal|author=Kaiya|first1= Z.|last2=Leatherwood |first2=S.|last3=Jefferson|first3= A. T. |year=2002 |title=Report of the Second Workshop on The Biology and Conservation of Small Cetaceans and Dugongs of South-East Asia |journal=CMS Technical Series Publication Nº 9 at Convention on Migratory Species |url=http://www.iucn-csg.org/wp-content/uploads/2010/03/Perrinetal.0589.pdf |editor=Perrin F. W. |editor2=Reeves R. R. |editor3=Dolar L. L. M. |editor4=Jefferson A. T. |editor5=Marsh H. |editor6=Wang Y. J. |editor7=Estacion J. |access-date=December 24, 2014 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304045901/http://www.iucn-csg.org/wp-content/uploads/2010/03/Perrinetal.0589.pdf |archive-date=March 4, 2016 }}</ref>

====Cooperation with humans====
Orcas have helped humans hunting other whales.<ref name="scavenging">{{cite journal|last1=Reeves|first1=Randall|last2=Whitehead|first2=Hal|title=Killer whales and whaling: the scavenging hypothesis|journal=Biology Letters|volume=1|issue=4|pages=415–418|year=2005|pmid=17148221|pmc=1626385|doi=10.1098/rsbl.2005.0348}}</ref> One well-known example was the [[Killer whales of Eden, New South Wales|orcas of Eden, Australia]], including the male known as [[Old Tom (orca)|Old Tom]]. Whalers more often considered them a nuisance, however, as orcas would gather to scavenge meat from the whalers' catch.<ref name="scavenging"/> Some populations, such as in Alaska's [[Prince William Sound]], may have been reduced significantly by whalers shooting them in retaliation.<ref name=baird/>