Avoiding whale strikes - Antifouling colour

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pentagram

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Hi

Does anyone have any suggestions as to the most suitable colour to antifoul hulls to try and avoid getting splatted by our cetaceous friends?! I have read quite a bit about avoiding black, red and white.

Any ideas will be much appreciated.

Thanks
 
"Pink with red & white dots. ".

My favourite colour's purple.....Do you think I could get away with purple with white chevrons instead??!!

Also, do you want a job coming to mask it up and paint them on for us?! :)
 
Paint on the ''Stars & Stripes''. Bound to be afraid of the Yanks.

Or better still a Rising Sun. That way they will suspect Japs and fear for their lives.
 
Haha! I can't say I'd blame them for being afraid!

I notice you were quite reticent about the masking and painting bit?!
 
If you were scientifically minded you could paint on the bottom "Your mother was just a fat porpoise" and thereby determine the level of literacy amongst the whale population.
 
"If you were scientifically minded you could paint on the bottom "Your mother was just a fat porpoise" and thereby determine the level of literacy amongst the whale population."

Red rag and bull springs to mind!! :)
 
You could always paint it red. That way they will think you're a port hand buoy and give you wider berth.

Sorry about not volunteering to mask up etc etc to busy making Daisey chains.
 
You might stick a couple of these on your hull ...

WhalesKeepOff.jpg
 
Does the habit of painting eyes on the bow of boats (particularly catamarans) have any effect. Might make whales think of a pair of killer whales but would this scare them off or encourage them to attack to defend their young.
 
Hi Gobes. Planning a circumnavigation lasting for a good few years, so yes there stands more of a chance than bimbling round locally.

Hi Charles Reed. From what I have red there is some debate as to the colour blindness issue. I found this below when I was doing some Googling after reading your reply:

"Neither do bulls - it is the movement of the cape that attracts them and enrages them, not the colour.

THIS suggests that whales (Cetaceans in the language of the paper) do have colour vision - but that it isn't like our colour vision."

I'm not a marine biologist but this sounds plausible from either perspective. If it's the movement, I don't suppose it matters at all on the colour. Thanks for your response. Didn't know they were colour blind. I'm sure this isn't common knowledge to Joe Public!

Thanks
 
pentagram said:
Hi Gobes. Planning a circumnavigation lasting for a good few years, so yes there stands more of a chance than bimbling round locally.

Hi Charles Reed. From what I have red there is some debate as to the colour blindness issue. I found this below when I was doing some Googling after reading your reply:

"Neither do bulls - it is the movement of the cape that attracts them and enrages them, not the colour.

THIS suggests that whales (Cetaceans in the language of the paper) do have colour vision - but that it isn't like our colour vision."

I'm not a marine biologist but this sounds plausible from either perspective. If it's the movement, I don't suppose it matters at all on the colour. Thanks for your response. Didn't know they were colour blind. I'm sure this isn't common knowledge to Joe Public!

Thanks
Click to expand...

I too did a quick check on the scholarly information available, and came up tith THIS review article, which confirms that cetaceans probably do have colour vision, but that what they see is not like what we see. They probably can't see the blue end of the spectrum.

However, it is worth noting that sight is not a major issue in a large whale's senses. They depend far more on sonar. In fact, the great whales probably can't see directly in front, only to the side. I think I recall reading accounts of historical whaling that suggest that the best way of approaching a whale on the surface was to come from directly in front of it.
 
Why are you worried about being 'attacked' by a whale? I mean Whales are not aggressive unless they have calves with them. Curious & clumsy maybe, but aggressive they ain't.

We've had Brydes whale surface alongside (I mean touching distance away!) for a look, 4 Sie whales pass pass just clear of the keel, a family group of Pilot whales with calves come to the boat for look. Never once did we feel threatened by these fantastic mammals. Our anti-foul has been white, black and now red. I don't think it makes any difference.

I'd be more worried about trees and big sheets of plastic floating around the ocean and coastal waters. I've hit a few trees at night and in poor vis!
 
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