There are several subtypes. The most common are the transient, resident, and offshore orcas, but these are all located in the Pacific Northwest. (I believe there's a fourth, rarely observed one in this area, but I can't remember the name.) Several other subtypes exist, such as the rarely seen Type D pod in the Southern Ocean. If I recall correctly, the orcas attacking these boats are tuna specialists. Fish-eating orcas typically concentrate one a single or just a couple of species of fish, which explains why they're upset.
Orcas are highly intelligent, and it's my opinion that they know exactly what they're doing and are frustrated with the competition.
I think the running assumption should be that orcas are as intelligent as humans. Their brains are much larger and have more complex/dense folds than ours. They're also more socially bound than us, likely giving them a higher emotional intelligence.
Intelligence evolves in response to environmental pressures. Other than being mammalian, I doubt that orca and human intelligence can really be compared. Orcas don't have agriculture or industry. They just live naked in their environment and hunt. Their intelligence might be something like that of a pre-homo-sapien hunter tribe.
You are conflating intelligence with technology. Orcas live in the water and do not have hands. It is impossible for them to develop writing systems or agriculture due to their environment. If we put a human in water, assuming a human could survive in open water, we’d quickly realize the human is powerless to develop these things as well.
The modern day human brain is essentially identical to the earliest hunter-gatherer humans. Those groups did not have writing systems, industry, agriculture, etc., and yet their intelligence remains equal to ours. It is my suspicion, based upon my reading of orca behavior and biology, that such is the case with orcas. Even modern-day hunter-gatherer societies do not have writing systems or agriculture.
On a related note, I would even argue that our modern technology exposes the limits of human intelligence, particularly that of social and emotional intelligence.
Orcas appear to have quite high social and emotional intelligence in addition to their more raw intelligence of problem solving, teaching, and language.
The biology is rather clear. Their brains are very complex, even more so than ours when it comes to folds. The areas of their brains relating to social and emotional processes are bigger, relatively speaking, than the corresponding areas in human brains.
It is tempting to rate their intelligence lower because they don’t have tractors or rockets, but I think this is mistaken. Nearly every piece of research shows that they’re more intelligent and complex than we previously thought.
"Man has always assumed that he is more intelligent than dolphins because he has achieved so much— the wheel, New York, wars and so on— while all the dolphins had ever done was muck about in the water having a good time. But, conversely, the dolphins had always believed that they were far more intelligent than man— for precisely the same reasons."
(Douglas Adams, So Long, and Thanks for All the Fish)
> Orcas don't have agriculture or industry.
> They just live naked in their environment and hunt.
That was also true of Homo Sapiens for quite a while. We have the same brains for thousands of years, which is adaptable enough for both hunger-gathering, as well as rocket science.
Orcas don't have hands and live underwater. That may put a damper on their industry.
Orcas are highly intelligent, and it's my opinion that they know exactly what they're doing and are frustrated with the competition.
I think the running assumption should be that orcas are as intelligent as humans. Their brains are much larger and have more complex/dense folds than ours. They're also more socially bound than us, likely giving them a higher emotional intelligence.