More encounters with Orcas...

[steve yates]

There is no “should”. Are you happy for boats to keep getting damaged with no solution?

yes

 

[steve yates]

I’m a complete supporter of wildlife but not of letting tigers or elephants going rogue or orcas. We can only share the planet with respect, tolerance and firm control when necessary.

Thats us humans f%&^%&$d then

 

[Graham376]

There must be something (not lethal) they don't like the taste or smell of, maybe white spirit or turps pumped through the heads which, in our case, has the outlet about 2 metres ahead of the rudder.

 

[greeny]

There must be something (not lethal) they don't like the taste or smell of, maybe white spirit or turps pumped through the heads which, in our case, has the outlet about 2 metres ahead of the rudder.

At last, a bit of lateral thinking to solve the problem. Just got to find what it is they don't like now. Something smelly and distasteful but concentrated enough you don't need gallons of it. Or even what about a water soluble dye that would discolor or cloud the water enough to put them off. Don't plumbers use something of that nature?
I just hope it doesn't make them more angry.

 

[AntarcticPilot]

At last, a bit of lateral thinking to solve the problem. Just got to find what it is they don't like now. Something smelly and distasteful but concentrated enough you don't need gallons of it. Or even what about a water soluble dye that would discolor or cloud the water enough to put them off. Don't plumbers use something of that nature?
I just hope it doesn't make them more angry.

Sight is not a major sense for them, and I've read that their colour vision differs from ours. Whales can operate perfectly well in muddy water, as in estuaries.

I don't know about their sense of smell, but I can't imagine it is particularly strong - unlike sharks and fish, they don't pass water over sensory tissues because they don't breathe water. Like us, they hold their breath underwater - they're just very good at it!

Unfortunately, what little evidence there is suggests that they don't like people emitting noises that messes with their very sensitive hearing and echolocation, and react against it.

I also doubt that this is merely a single rogue pod, but rather that something in the area is prompting this behaviour. Perhaps their normal prey has become too scarce, so they are investigating potential new prey, and yachts happen to look (to an echolocating animal) similar? Remember, their vision doesn't stop at the skin - could they see the internal framework of a rudder as a skeleton? Could they attack rudders because it mimics the large fish that are their usual prey?

I don't know the answer, and suspect it might take considerable research by marine biologists to find out. But who will pay for it? Does the RYA have a research budget?

 

[dune16]

Someone on Facebook just reported another incident. Rudders taken clean off leaving Gibraltar

 

[sarabande]

If the boats are a source of the echolocation distress, then why do these whale killer dolphins come even closer to the source ?

 

[AntarcticPilot]

If the boats are a source of the echolocation distress, then why do these whale killer dolphins come even closer to the source ?

To eliminate it?