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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

#151

Post by darklycan51 »

epilys wrote: post #101
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 distinctio…

They assumed it was a whale but from the region it's likely it was an orca instead especially because currently the orca attacks started (again) from the mediterranean

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

#152

Post by quantumfissure »

IvyMike wrote: post #141
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…

If someone is out there secretly training and paying Orcas to sink yachts... that would be pretty neat.

It would be a missed opportunity if they don't have their secret base inside a volcano.

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

#153

Post by someweirdperson »

droffel wrote: post #32
mattkrause wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm skeptical anything (reasonable) would be able to shoot through several feet of water.

Harpoon guns are designed to do exactly that.

Maximum depth of penetration is the ratio of the densities of the projectile and the matter to be penetrated times the length of the projectile. Harpoons have a higher density than water and are quite long, so they work.

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

#154

Post by yetanotherloser »

dbish wrote: post #138
yetanotherloser wrote: post #135

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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)

Ah. Sorry, I got the wrong end of the stick there!

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

#155

Post by mustacheemperor »

vintagedave wrote: post #137
mustacheemperor wrote: post #95

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 we…

Aha, I misread “Norwegian” to be in Norway, not Norwegians whaling in Australia. Certainly makes a lot more sense geographically, I was thinking that seemed like a long way to swim.

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

#156

Post by ethbr0 »

dmvdoug wrote: post #50

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

I too support our proletariat whale and dolphin brethren.

Why should the richest humans sail on personal gilded craft?!

Down with yachts! The hour of revolution is at hand!

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

#158

Post by p0pcult »

someweirdperson wrote: post #153
droffel wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Harpoon guns are designed to do exactly that.

Maximum depth of penetration is the ratio of the densities of the projectile and the matter to be penetrated times the length of the projectile. Harpoons have a higher density than water and are quite long, so they work.

[dead]

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

#159

Post by [deleted] »

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…

[deleted]

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

#160

Post by deanCommie »

dmvdoug wrote: post #50

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

I love whales.

But never forget that Orcas aren't called Killer Whales because they're "Whales That Kill", but because they're "Killers Of Whales".

Orcas kill other whales, sometimes for fun not for food. And they have such a reputation in the cetacean kingdom as brutal murderous assholes, that whales will help seals escape from them, to their own detriment/risk.

So yeah. In Humans vs. Orcas, it's hard not to root for the orcas, especially considering how we've treated them in captivity for the last 100 years. But on a more broader mammalian scale, we're both kind of the intelligent assholes of the animal kingdom.

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