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

smithsonianmag.com

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

#111

Post by whoopdedo »

zeroonetwothree wrote: post #65
anigbrowl wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

something of a coincidence Orcas do go in for fads (look up 'orca salmon hats') but experts oftentimes dismiss things as coincidence because they don't have a theory and don't want to look stupid by speculating. When I was growing up reports of ball lightning were dismissed as hallucinations or optical illusions until video and spectrographic technology advanced sufficiently to capture the phenomenon: https://en.wiki…

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

My father saw ball lightning. He described it as occurring near a small fence -- really a couple stakes and string with flags for visibility hanging off it. Said that the ball would hover as it jumped from post to post then fizzled out.

Ball lightning is one of those things that you'd expect to be easier to detect because of the increased use of cameras. Why isn't Youtube flooded with dozens of videos showing lightning balls? There are a few, but none of them are convincing. (One is clearly a drone being flown in a thunderstorm.) Most are fakumentaries. (3 seconds of shaky zoomed-in "proof" and 5 minutes of a so-called expert breathlessly talking about it.) How can ball lightning both have lots of people claiming to see it, but is infrequently caught on video?

My suspicion is people are encountering normal lightning discharges at close range and the "ball" is an illusion caused by how eyes work. If someone attempted to get ball lightning on camera they'd be disappointed to see the recording look nothing like how they remembered it.

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

#113

Post by dbish »

pinkcan wrote: post #57
droffel wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Harpoon guns are designed to do exactly that.

yea, let's equip boats that can't handle an orca with guns that shoot projectiles through meters of water it's like trying to solve school shooting, by giving teachers guns

Sadly this seems to be an approach a large chunk of people actually want to try. Lots of folks out there who are not equipped to make suggestions

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

#114

Post by ianburrell »

clort wrote: post #106
ianburrell wrote: post #94

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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..

I follow cruisers and Youtube rich ones. Also, 6000Wh is 500Ah 12V batteries. AC is pretty rare on sailboats but does show up on nicer ones, but I get the impression nobody runs it except on shore power.

Also, when news say orcas are attacking small sailboats, I think they are comparing them to large yachts. And not actually small sailboats below 25'. I suspect most are 30-50' since that is most popular size for offshore.

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

#115

Post by javajosh »

mcpackieh wrote: post #53

I've never believed that orcas have always left humans alone. I think they began leaving humans alone when commercial whaling took off and they witnessed first hand how dangerous humans can be to whales. Maybe that generational memory is now fading. Yeah I know the argument that humans are too bony and taste bad, but how would they know we taste bad if they never even take a nibble to taste test us? These are very in…

It may be retribution. Maybe a yacht propeller maimed or killed an important orca, an elder or a child, and now they want retribution. Or maybe it's just a fun thing to do, or a teenager right of passage thing. Or some combination. It's fun to speculate!

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

#116

Post by Slava_Propanei »

pfdietz wrote: post #93
SketchySeaBeast wrote: post #2

While I don't much care about the yachts and find the fact that the behaviour is spreading fascinating, my fear out of all this is people will start hurting the whales to try to get them to stop.

Or maybe the orcas will restrict their boat-ramming, people-eating behavior to refugee boats. The powers that be will be happy, just as long as they leave the billion-carrying submarines alone.

[dead]

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

#117

Post by [deleted] »

mikeInAlaska wrote: post #100
anigbrowl wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

something of a coincidence Orcas do go in for fads (look up 'orca salmon hats') but experts oftentimes dismiss things as coincidence because they don't have a theory and don't want to look stupid by speculating. When I was growing up reports of ball lightning were dismissed as hallucinations or optical illusions until video and spectrographic technology advanced sufficiently to capture the phenomenon: https://en.wiki…

I have seen ball lightning here in Alaska. One time, at night. Distance maybe 120 feet away. I watching a glowing orb perhaps 3 feet in diameter drift from the front of my parents garage towards their house before disappearing. An absolutely crystal clear view. I was on the phone with my wife at the time and describing the event to her, it was absolutely chilling to see ! I have never seen anything like it before or…

[deleted]

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

#118

Post by albedoa »

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

Talk about a dishonest comment. You are literally replying to a thread in which a History Channel feature of a confirmed CGI video was used as evidence that "there are videos of" ball lightning.

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

#119

Post by dang »

Related. Others?

'Scary moment' as orcas disrupt ocean boat race - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36452464 - June 2023 (89 comments)

Orcas sink 3 boats in Europe and appear to teach others to do the same. But why? - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36006861 - May 2023 (21 comments)

Orcas are breaking rudders off boats in Europe - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=32593799 - Aug 2022 (239 comments)

Killer whales are 'attacking' sailboats near Europe's coast - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=32540473 - Aug 2022 (9 comments)

Orcas striking sailing boats in the Straits of Gibraltar - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24460126 - Sept 2020 (154 comments)

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

#120

Post by nyolfen »

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!

as leonard cohen once said: you won't like what comes after [humans]
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