Orca rams into yacht near Scotland, suggesting the behavior may be spreading • Hacker News Board

Re: Orca rams into yacht near Scotland, suggesting the behavior may be spreading

#101

Post by epilys » Sat, Jul 01, 2023, 5:36 PM UTC

gcanyon wrote: post #62

This is not the first time orcas have shown an awareness of us in boats: through the second half of the 1800s orcas in Australia actually helped whalers hunt baleen whales: herding the prey, and even grabbing ropes in their mouths to help haul, in exchange for the most valuable (to them) parts of the carcasses. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Killer_whales_of_Eden,_New_Sou... Old Tom, one of the most helpful orcas, die…

In the 6th century CE, a whale called Porphyrios terrorized and sank ships near Constantinople for nearly 50 years.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Porphyrios_(whale)

Porphyrios harassed ships in the waters of Constantinople for over fifty years,[7] though not continuously since it at times disappeared for lengthy periods of time.[4] It most frequently appeared in the Bosporus Strait.[1] Porphyrios made no distinctions in regard to which ships it attacked, recorded as having attacked fishing vessels, merchant ships and warships.[1] Many ships were sunk by Porphyrios, and its mere reputation terrified the crews of many more; ships often took detours to go around the waters where the whale most commonly swam.[4] Emperor Justinian I (r. 527–565), perplexed by the whale attacks and wishing to keep sea routes safe,[11] made it a matter of great concern to capture Porphyrios, though he was unable to devise a means through which to do this.[1][4][12]

Re: Orca rams into yacht near Scotland, suggesting the behavior may be spreading

#102

Post by Scarblac » Sat, Jul 01, 2023, 5:38 PM UTC

dmvdoug wrote: post #50

Not going to lie, friends: I’m rooting for the whales.

Just to be pedantic: orcas are dolphins, not whales (despite also being being called "killer whales").

Re: Orca rams into yacht near Scotland, suggesting the behavior may be spreading

#103

Post by isoprophlex » Sat, Jul 01, 2023, 5:38 PM UTC

sh34r wrote: post #67

dmvdoug wrote: post #50

Not going to lie, friends: I’m rooting for the whales.

Gaia is fighting back. Nature is healing. As the great George Carlin said: the planet isn’t going anywhere, we are!

Our burden raised the world set free

The earth returns to land and sea

Our buildings burned and highways gone

I love my friends and everyone

But we've had our chance let's move aside

Let time wash us out with the tide

Re: Orca rams into yacht near Scotland, suggesting the behavior may be spreading

#104

Post by borski » Sat, Jul 01, 2023, 5:39 PM UTC

s1artibartfast wrote: post #18

shkkmo wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Orcas are a lot smarter than carp and appear to be doing this deliberately. It doesn't seem immediately obvious that causing these animals pain will prevent them from causing damage.

Pretty much all animals will avoid and deliberate action to avoid pain I think it's a reasonable assumption

That is not true. Even humans work out, causing pain, but do so anyway because it makes the body stronger.

Muay Thai practitioners roll their shins and smack them against trees, causing pain.

Anxiety often induced animals to cause pain to themselves in the form of self-harm.

And so on and so forth.

Re: Orca rams into yacht near Scotland, suggesting the behavior may be spreading

#105

Post by fasthands9 » Sat, Jul 01, 2023, 5:39 PM UTC

Scarblac wrote: post #97

fasthands9 wrote: post #90

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But the 2020 incident could have just captured the media attention arbitrarily because of good timing. If there had been a similar attack in 1980 would it have captured the media attention so much without the internet? Probably not. I dont know every incident but this one in Scotland involved an orca ramming into a boat and causing zero injuries and no actual damage to the boat. How would this even have been reported…

Yes, I understand your point about the past. But at least since 2020, these things are news, and widely reported. And if it were normal behaviour, we'd see it reported from everywhere. Also they damaged a bunch of ships near Gibraltar, and sank three. That would have been reported before 2020.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orca_attacks

there are plenty of anecdotal reports dating back almost 100 years. there are reports here before 2020 of ships being destroyed.

yes I realize the hugeness of the numbers now is much larger than it was before 2020 - but again that is when the database was established which allowed anyone to submit a report, no matter the extent of the damage

Re: Orca rams into yacht near Scotland, suggesting the behavior may be spreading

#106

Post by clort » Sat, Jul 01, 2023, 5:40 PM UTC

ianburrell wrote: post #94

FooBarBizBazz wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Electric fish barriers generate really strong fields, using buildings' full of power electronics. They are surrounded by fences with prominent warning signs, and if you fall into the water I'm pretty sure you die. So maybe something like this could be "switched on" temporarily -- run on batteries for a few minutes -- but you sure wouldn't want the boat to run with this on all the time. It probably wouldn't even be po…

Small sailboats don’t have that much power available. 1000W solar, 6000 Wh batteries, and separate generator on medium size. Running AC is challenge away from shore for most boats.

You seem to be an order of magnitude away from what I consider normal for a small sailboat. 80W solar panel & 400Ah battery bank. Even the 'high output' alternator only puts out 70A max. Do people really need AC when away from shore? I lived in the Caribbean for years and never had it, its much cooler out on the water..

Re: Orca rams into yacht near Scotland, suggesting the behavior may be spreading

#107

Post by KnobbleMcKnees » Sat, Jul 01, 2023, 5:42 PM UTC

koheripbal wrote: post #83

hombre_fatal wrote: post #79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> There are videos of it, and lots of people have seen it, not sure how much more proof you need That describes Bigfoot. I’d hope your epidemic standard is beyond anecdotes + videos that report to show what they report they’re showing. Else you can be made to believe anything. I don’t know enough about ball lightning to care one way or another.

This is a dishonest comment. No one has dressed up and walked in front of a camera as ball lightning

This is an even more dishonest comment because the answer to the question "can evidence of ball lightning be easily faked using video editing?" is quite obviously "yes".

Re: Orca rams into yacht near Scotland, suggesting the behavior may be spreading

#108

Post by ninkendo » Sat, Jul 01, 2023, 5:45 PM UTC

OmarShehata wrote: post #72

zeroonetwothree wrote: post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That link says: “Owing to the lack of reproducible data, the existence of ball lightning as a distinct physical phenomenon remains unproven”

There are videos of it, and lots of people have seen it, not sure how much more proof you need: > An optical spectrum of what appears to have been a ball lightning event was published in January 2014 and included a video at high frame rate https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1bBNeyrMOJE I think what that sentence is saying is that we don't know how to reproduce it in a lab. We don't know what exactly is happening in the…

At the end of the video you linked, they admit it was CGI.

Re: Orca rams into yacht near Scotland, suggesting the behavior may be spreading

#109

Post by s1artibartfast » Sat, Jul 01, 2023, 5:47 PM UTC

colechristensen wrote: post #63

swid wrote: post #15

This American Life just did a segment where the experts were very skeptical of both the theories presented in this article - that the first encounters near Spain were caused by a traumatic event of a matriarch, and also that orca pods would communicate with each other to spread the behavior. The theory presented in that segment was the first orcas are sort of like rowdy teenagers participating in a fad, and the newer…

Clearly orcas have culture that spreads. It’s a bit silly to speculate about patient zero being a matriarch as there’s zero evidence, likewise until a mechanism of communication is known saying it was or was not communicated between pods without evidence isn’t reasonable.

In this case I think it's interesting how people project their personal social views onto the blank slate. The idea that the trend must have started by a female whale that was somehow harmed and is now seeking Justice if it's cleanly into the framework with what some people view the world.

The idea that it was started by some way all that got a kick out of causing destruction doesn't have the same social resonance

Re: Orca rams into yacht near Scotland, suggesting the behavior may be spreading

#110

Post by ThisIsNowhere » Sat, Jul 01, 2023, 5:47 PM UTC

cowthulhu wrote: post #60

dmvdoug wrote: post #50

Not going to lie, friends: I’m rooting for the whales.

The orcas are attacking small sailboats, which tend to have less of an environmental impact… less engine use, quiet, fewer people on board, very small scale fishing (if at all). It’s weird to be rooting against this sort of ship when cruise ships and trawlers are the real problem - and also pretty difficult to attack. Will you count it as a success if people favor larger powerboats over small sailboats?

I know I'm on HN when someone is explaining why the "woke" ideology of the orcas attacking yachts is ultimately futile.