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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

#131

Post by hoten »

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…

Haven't listened to that show in a bit. Did they change narrators? The guy sounds sick and it's pretty distracting :/

Edit: ok Ira was sick and it's mentioned halfway through

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

#132

Post by fallingfrog »

The “blackfish” documentary on one of sea world’s orcas talks about how they captured baby orcas. It’s pretty heartbreaking.

https://youtu.be/-zXMxBtBPJo

The most amazing part is how clever the orcas were while trying to avoid capture. The young and their mothers dove down deep and then swam towards a river where they surfaced while the other adults swam along the surface to lead the boats away. It’s hard to imagine a group of humans coming up with a better plan, and it’s hard to imagine how to execute that plan without some kind of language.

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

#133

Post by fasthands9 »

usrusr wrote: post #121
fasthands9 wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

its very possible. though im also skeptical than sailors in indonesia would think to log onto that website to report such an incidence. so still seems highly possible to me that it was super big news among sailors in the Iberian peninsula and now, only near there, are you getting consistent reports because those people know to report

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

#134

Post by yetanotherloser »

AnotherGoodName wrote: post #49
glogla wrote: post #25

I wonder what kind of gun would you need to chase away an orca. I'm going to assume 9mm wouldn't even penetrate their thick skin and subskin fat.

It's not particularly harmful fwiw. A yacht sinking due to an orca would have sunk due to a strong wave. Also it seems the orcas are bored. If Hvaldimir is anything to go by a ball would be a good solution here. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hvaldimir

They've not yet shown any sign of being a danger to the hull as far as I know. They pretty often break the rudder off leaving the boat difficult to control. Most long distance sailors would carry some kind of emergency rudder arrangement but more casual coastal types don't usually.

Speculation among sailors is that "hey, did you know you can break bits off those things?" is as plausible an explanation as any.

There are known ways to scare orcas off but it's illegal to distress them and nobody really wants to. I certainly don't.

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

#135

Post by yetanotherloser »

dbish wrote: post #113
pinkcan wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

I have never, ever met a yachtsman who wants to carry any kind of anti orca weaponry. Let's not exaggerate here.

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

#136

Post by shreyshnaccount »

serf wrote: post #61
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.

there is bound to be some kind of response if this remains a trend; and given that some of these boats are having their fin/bulb keels seemingly targeted by these animals means that the crews of the boats are in some greater level of mortal peril than is already provided by the hobby.. I feel bad for the animals, but sailing doesn't seem to be going anywhere as a global interest and boats produced are getting to be m…

I totally understand where you are coming from but the palatable entitlement of our species is at its peak when we say something like this

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

#137

Post by vintagedave »

mustacheemperor wrote: post #95
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…

Died in 1930 when a whaler tried to bring the carcass in early, before Tom had his share (there was a storm approaching). Tom lost teeth grabbing the tow rope and washed up deceased with oral abscesses some time later. This was after most of the pod of killer whales had disappeared - thought maybe hunted down in Norway. Whaling is fascinating history. But it is very sad.

> thought maybe hunted down in Norway

Are you sure? I don't know much about orcas but that's a very long way to track the same whales. The Wikipedia article [1] states Norwegian whalers a little further north in Jervis Bay, still in Australian waters.

I fully agree, whaling is a very sad history. As a kid, I occasionally saw "whale pots", big iron cauldrons used for boiling down blubber (I suppose.) I thought they were really cool. I don't think so any more.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Old_Tom_(orca)#Death_and_the_e...

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

#138

Post by dbish »

yetanotherloser wrote: post #135
dbish wrote: post #113

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

I have never, ever met a yachtsman who wants to carry any kind of anti orca weaponry. Let's not exaggerate here.

Lol. Referring to arming teachers not boaters (I’m a sailor myself, yet to hear anyone wanting one)

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

#139

Post by whalesalad »

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…

My gut is telling me it’s a parasite or toxin causing the aggression. But I have zero professional knowledge in this space.

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

#140

Post by INTPenis »

I'm a complete layperson but reading articles lately it seems that the whale population in general is recovering, due to regulations and a halted whale hunting.

So could this be a side-effect of a larger whale population? More whales, higher statistical probability to attack some human boat. There are after all thousands of human controlled vessels in the sea at any time.

Ancient texts indicate that these were monsters to be feared, so maybe back in ancient times, before whale hunting became efficient, this was a frequent danger.

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