51–60 of 85 posts
Historically orcas usually didn't mess with boats or even assisted whalers in hunts. I wonder if this was a cultural memory of the orcas about sailors (whalers at least) retaliating quite fiercely in the few instances they were being messed with and that's fading away now.
The big issue is that we can't communicate to the orcas that this is not ok. We could very easily destroy them, but of course nobody wants to do that. You could try to spritz them with a water bottle but I suspect they wouldn't notice. Same with the rolled up newspaper trick. It would just dissolve in the water. I'm very worried about these orcas ever since I heard about them. It is probably fun for them what they ar…
> You could try to spritz them with a water bottle but I suspect they wouldn't notice. One of my cats responds well to the water bottle; mostly I just have to pick it up, I don't even have to spritz it, and I certainly don't have to actually squirt her. The other cat though, could care less, if I get him anywhere other than the face, he just is like 'oh, being naughty did make me thirsty, thanks for the drink'
The OP’s point is that spraying them will do nothing because they are literally in a giant pool of water already. A spritz is literally not going to affect them at all. They probably wouldn’t even notice it happening nor be able to associate an emotion to it.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
I believe orcas can live as long as humans. So there's a bunch of middle-aged orcas out there who sometimes go: "Remember when we all wore fish hats after Jeannie got one? Man, that was crazy... Do you think a dead salmon would look good on me still?"
The important thing was that I had a salmon on my head, which was the style at the time. They didn't have any pink salmons, because of the humans. The only thing you could get was those decaying yellow ones...
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Do the go after the sail boats or is it just motorboats. The propellers are quite loud under the water, I wonder if they are maybe annoyed by the noise and learnt attacking those vessels makes the noise go away
Among the sailing cruisers, it's become clear this is not a factor. Sailing vessels have been attacked with their propellors on brake, with their props disengaged or with props running. In general, marine mammals don't mind the sound of engines (even though I do!) We have had pods of dolphins swimming along and playing around our boat in all configurations. I once turned off the engine when the dolphins came around,…
To the dolphins, I guess your boat was probably like their equivalent of an amusement park or something, haha. Novel, exciting, loud, and artificial.
> it's not their anticapitalist 'eat the rich' agenda This seems epistemologically quite dubious. How would we know?
Historically orcas usually didn't mess with boats or even assisted whalers in hunts. I wonder if this was a cultural memory of the orcas about sailors (whalers at least) retaliating quite fiercely in the few instances they were being messed with and that's fading away now.
The big issue is that we can't communicate to the orcas that this is not ok. We could very easily destroy them, but of course nobody wants to do that. You could try to spritz them with a water bottle but I suspect they wouldn't notice. Same with the rolled up newspaper trick. It would just dissolve in the water. I'm very worried about these orcas ever since I heard about them. It is probably fun for them what they ar…
I suspect shooting the orcas with a handgun or small rifle round would have a deterrent effect, but probably not kill them. They're smart and social, so maybe "word" would spread quickly that this activity isn't so fun anymore.
So I'm somewhat surprised they don't try to attack the things that all the annoying noise is coming from.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
> You could try to spritz them with a water bottle but I suspect they wouldn't notice. One of my cats responds well to the water bottle; mostly I just have to pick it up, I don't even have to spritz it, and I certainly don't have to actually squirt her. The other cat though, could care less, if I get him anywhere other than the face, he just is like 'oh, being naughty did make me thirsty, thanks for the drink'
Them cat reacts because you have sprayed them at least once with it and it associated negative emotions to that action. It’s not like cats and orcas see a water bottle at birth and immediately know what it is and what will happen if it’s used against them. That is an entirely learned behavior from what you have done to them in the past with it. You can attach negative and positive associations with most items if you…
Yeah. I mean obviously the water bottle and the rolled up newspaper examples were jokes. But I believe it would be much better for them if we could find their killer whale equivalent. Without that our options are "doing nothing, hoping they stop harassing boats", and "terminate them with extreme prejudice".
We don't shoot Fido in the head on the first infraction. (At least most people agree on that with some exceptions [1]) But that is largely because we have better options.
1: https://www.theguardian.com/books/2024/apr/26/trump-kristi-n...
You don't need any great conspiracy theory about sentient animals plotting to reclaim the seas from humanity - from what I read, modern engine-powered ships cause a lot of noise pollution which directly affects marine animals like whales. So I'm somewhat surprised they don't try to attack the things that all the annoying noise is coming from.
Also, even when sailing yachts use their engine, it's not exactly a big and powerful noisy engine like a tanker or cruise liner. Yet, we have seen more videos of orcas attacking 10 person or smaller sailing yachts than bigger, noisier ships.