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Free time, curiosity and playfulness has led to young orcas bumping boats

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Re: Free time, curiosity and playfulness has led to young orcas bumping boats

#72
post #38

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. Same with the rolled up newspaper trick. It would just dissolve in the water.

Simply adapt your boats to be foul-tasting, like a normal species. Spritz them with capsaicin, denatonium benzoate, skunk secretions, etc.

Re: Free time, curiosity and playfulness has led to young orcas bumping boats

#73
post #67
post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Historically it was the opposite: https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/killer-whales-work-wit... - the whalers worked with the orcas and gave them some of the catch. Cooperation, not competition.

Perhaps they're just mad we stopped paying our tolls

tit-for-tat cooperation strategies are pretty well-known in the animal world. Hell, even mycelium hold back minerals from trees that stiff them on sugars.

Re: Free time, curiosity and playfulness has led to young orcas bumping boats

#75
post #14

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

Why wouldn’t the older ones do that, and only the males?

The answer is apparent if in the nature-vs-nurture girls-vs-boys discussion you keep a healthy inclination towards nature.

Re: Free time, curiosity and playfulness has led to young orcas bumping boats

#78
post #57
post #38

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'm not that worried about this. It's pretty hard to kill an orca, and whoever decides to be a vigilante about this won't invest in some kind of custom orca-killing solution, they'll just use what they have on hand. And everyone has guns. 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 qu…

> they'll just use what they have on hand. And everyone has guns.

That is exactly what I am worried about. I consider that to be pretty bad situation for the orca. One which they have no way to anticipate. And as you say that is the “simplest” solution so that is the most likely one to be employed if someone becomes aggitated.

> … but probably not kill them

That part I don’t know about. I suspect getting shot is pretty dangerous. There is some chance of it killing the orca within minutes (if it hits their brain or a major blood vessel), but i agre that the probability of that is low. Then there is the chance of it slowly killing the orca (either because the wound gets infected or because it interferes with their hunting/feeding such that the animal starves to death.)

All around I would like to very much avoid this outcome.

Re: Free time, curiosity and playfulness has led to young orcas bumping boats

#79
post #38

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 agree with this content, but the way you put it you might actually encourage people wanting to hurt then to do it already. You can try something similar to the newspaper trick. Electric shocks come to mind. People could rent a Killer-Whale-Taser® before setting sail Another alternative could be something they perceive as foul taste/smell

> the way you put it you might actually encourage people wanting to hurt then to do it already

I don’t think people are waiting for my permission, but if they are: don’t hurt the orcas.

> Electric shocks come to mind. … Another alternative could be something they perceive as foul taste/smell.

Yeah those are options. I was also thinking about sudden noise, like a waterproof firecracker.

The problem with all of these is that without testing it is at best a guess how effective they will be. Imagine you set the taser to the lowest setting and you trigger it and the whole pod of whales just die. Oops they are more sensitive to electric shocks we thought. Or you dump a bucket of capcaisin on them, and they just… don’t care? So you can imagine many level/dosage

Re: Free time, curiosity and playfulness has led to young orcas bumping boats

#80
post #38

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 agree with this content, but the way you put it you might actually encourage people wanting to hurt then to do it already. You can try something similar to the newspaper trick. Electric shocks come to mind. People could rent a Killer-Whale-Taser® before setting sail Another alternative could be something they perceive as foul taste/smell

> the way you put it you might actually encourage people wanting to hurt then to do it already

I don’t think people are waiting for my permission, but if they are: don’t hurt the orcas.

> Electric shocks come to mind. … Another alternative could be something they perceive as foul taste/smell.

Yeah those are options. I was also thinking about sudden noise, like a waterproof firecracker.

The problem with all of these is that without testing it is at best a guess how effective they will be. Imagine you set the taser to the lowest setting and you trigger it and the whole pod of whales just die. Oops they are more sensitive to electric shocks we thought. Or you dump a bucket of capcaisin on them, and they just… don’t care? Without carefull calibration and tests it is easy to fail in either direction, and either hurting the whales too much or not doing enough for them to notice.

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