In September 1962 in Washington waters off the west side of San Juan Island, Marineland of the Pacific collector Frank Brocato lassoed a female salmon-eating southern resident orca. At one point he lifted the boat ' clear out of the water'. The whale was able to get free and chased the vessel for some time. In 1958, an orca attacked the fishing boat Tiger Shark after being struck with a harpoon off the coast of Long Island. The rest of the pod likely died of starvation. As the ice thickened, two to three whales were taken by Inuit hunters, and three more were harpooned but tore the lines (made of seal skin). However, the researchers weren't able to directly confirm the predation on the man, as one of the elders clearly stated that he hadn't witnessed the event himself while the other didn't clarify whether he had. Two Inuit elders stated to a research team that one of the animals chased the young man, broke the ice under him, then killed and ate him. A pod of orcas (likely 10-12 animals) was trapped in a polynya, and a young man visited the site in spite of advice from elders to wait until the ice was strong enough. 1955, an Inuit man fell prey to an orca entrapped by ice in Grand Suttie Bay ( Foxe Basin, Canada). In the early 1910s, Scott's Terra Nova Expedition recorded that orcas had attempted to tip ice floes on which an expedition photographer and a sled dog team were standing.

There are a few recorded cases of wild orcas threatening humans, including one from the 1890s. Experts are divided as to whether the injuries and deaths were accidental or deliberate attempts to cause harm. In captivity, there have been several non-fatal and four fatal attacks on humans since the 1970s. There have been multiple killer whale attacks on humans in the wild, but such attacks are less common than those by captive orcas.

Orcas (or killer whales) are large, powerful aquatic apex predators.

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