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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

#121

Post by usrusr »

fasthands9 wrote: post #36
koheripbal wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This comment is strange. Sperm whale from Moby dick's era routinely flight back when harpooned. Today's killer whale behavior is clearly new, and nearly the only violent behavior seen in any whale in a hundred years. .. and with multiple recent reports, it is a new trend.

I'm skeptical it is new. An orca ran into a boat causing no injuries or real damage. If this had happened 10 years ago would it have been reported in any way - either on the news or by a database? I think an easier explanation is someone started tracking this and now boat owners know to report it, because they have heard that someone is tracking it. There is now an Orca Reporting form: https://www.theca.org.uk/orcas/…

Might as well be both, the Gibraltar pod going through a real fad and the combination of social media and attention caused be Gibraltar news giving baseline level occurrences elsewhere visibility like never before

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

#122

Post by Tepix »

Scarblac wrote: post #102
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").

"The orca (Orcinus orca), also called killer whale, is a toothed whale belonging to the oceanic dolphin family, of which it is the largest member."

So it is both a dolphin and a whale.

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

#123

Post by jml78 »

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.

Yacht is a loaded term. A 30ft sailboat is a yacht. Given the crazy housing prices, a lot of people are buying sailboats and living in them because it is way cheaper than renting.

Yacht does not mean wealthy. I am firmly middle class. My family is planning to move onto a sailboat next year.

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

#124

Post by kyriakos »

ninkendo wrote: post #108
OmarShehata wrote: post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

admitted one of the 2 videos were cgi but the other one is not conclusive.

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

#125

Post by fallingfrog »

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…

In my opinion it’s likely that they are aware that eating humans would come with consequences.

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

#127

Post by glompers »

atdrummond wrote: post #84
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”

We had ball lightning blow a painting off of our wall in front of 30-odd people at Thanksgiving. It’s possible it was a mass delusion or a ghost but both of those strike me as less likely.

The 31st person dressed up and walking behind the painting may have had something constructive to say about the situation

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

#128

Post by glompers »

nerdponx wrote: post #55
_fat_santa wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> orcas are sort of like rowdy teenagers participating in a fad That sounds more amazing to me than the theory of the traumatic event, an Ocra equivalent to a TikTok trend.

But why not? They're intelligent, social animals.

https://www.yahoo.com/now/delta-states-fighting-okra-mascot-...

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

#130

Post by mythrwy »

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…

I think I saw this once in Florida as a child.

I had climbed a tree (at night) and looked down and there was a red glowing ball of light that drifted and bobbed along horizontally maybe 6 or 8 feet off the ground, and then disappeared. It was maybe a foot across or a little less. A friend was with me, we both watched in amazement.

I never knew what it was and halfway thought maybe I imagined it (except my friend saw it too). Until today I never knew what it might have been as this is my first time hearing of ball lighting. But it seems likely that is what it was.

After so many decades, glad to have a rational explanation at last! Thanks HN!

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