Orca attack

[capnsensible]

Anyone remember Peter Cook and Dudley Moore? If whales are that smart, why hasn't one written a book? Satire in its extreme form but so many people try and invest animals with some kind of human qualities. These orcas are a destructive out of control hazard that as it progresses is inevitably gonna turn deadly for humans. Many of whom make their living at sea in that area.

So tough luck, whales, cull time.

 

[PlanB]

There was an "orca expert" on the Today prog today giving advice to yachtsmen encountering orcas - get out of the area as fast as possible.
Seems to run counter to the popular advice to turn off engine and stay still, and ignores the fact that an orca could outrun a boat.

 

[webcraft]

Anyone remember Peter Cook and Dudley Moore? If whales are that smart, why hasn't one written a book? Satire in its extreme form but so many people try and invest animals with some kind of human qualities. These orcas are a destructive out of control hazard that as it progresses is inevitably gonna turn deadly for humans. Many of whom make their living at sea in that area.

So tough luck, whales, cull time.

I don't think we need to cull them, just give them a few headaches.

All the authorities need to do is greenlight firecrackers. It's not a big deal, the carriage of other pyrotechnics is already sanctioned.

Of.course, if as some suggest the orcas then decide to escalate things culling is a last resort. Sadly this would have been better done when only one pod was involved.

 

[webcraft]

There was an "orca expert" on the Today prog today giving advice to yachtsmen encountering orcas - get out of the area as fast as possible.
Seems to run counter to the popular advice to turn off engine and stay still, and ignores the fact that an orca could outrun a boat.

The 'play dead' advice has been utterly discredited by experience. Making all possible speed towards shallow water has repeatedly been shown to be the best way to minimise damage. So this particular 'expert' was spot on.

This is based on the shared experience of hundreds of yachts that have had encounters.

'Orca experts' range from marine biologists with no first hand experience of the Iberian orca population to species-depreciating econutters who value all life above humans.

Go to the relevant FB or WhatsApp groups to hear from those on the spot with skin in the game.

 

[Wandering Star]

Just wondered what the feedback is regards the suggested solution of lowering a piece of scaffold tube into the water and banging on it with a hammer? I’ve seen the idea suggested but no idea whether it works - my unscientific brain would cause me to think it might be a viable solution?

 

[GHA]

Just wondered what the feedback is regards the suggested solution of lowering a piece of scaffold tube into the water and banging on it with a hammer? I’ve seen the idea suggested but no idea whether it works - my unscientific brain would cause me to think it might be a viable solution?

Again, all this has been discussed in areas involving individuals who actually have education & experience, istr there could be positives but also it's a massive "here I am" signal for miles around to any animal which can hear. By the time they are playing with a rudder it's too late. Keep to the 20m contour has been proven to work for a long time & is what most people manage to do easily enough with no great hardship.
Any cull seems extremely unlikely, it would take years for a coordinated change in laws in many countries and the backlash would be massive, be seen like killing a load of rhinos so some rich folk can go mountain biking in the Serengeti.
Exclusion zones for pleasure craft in feeding areas has also been mentioned, some individual Orcas have satellite trackers fitted so positions are known but kept secret because of the amount of nutters around.

 

[webcraft]

Yes, it is easy to sail from Lagos to Cadiz in less than 20m, but yachts are also being attacked on the aptly named Galician Costa del Morte and now off Brittany. Sailing shallower than 20m is not possible here.

This behaviour, in hindsight, should have been nipped in the bud when it was only one pod. Now, a rapid standardisation and legitimisation of a sonic deterrent is the only thing that is likely to help.

"It's their sea, stay out of it" is wholly unacceptable as a long term strategy.

 

[GHA]

"It's their sea, stay out of it" is wholly unacceptable as a long term strategy.

Your personal opinions will change nothing though. Killing the last few apex ocean predators isn't going to happen just so we can go play on our toy boats. Just how far down the line any scientific deterrents are is unknown, but it is happening.

 

[Bristolfashion]

or sail in less pleasant waters and are jealous.

I wouldn't describe waters rife with crazed orcas out to send you to Davy Jones' Locker as "pleasant"

A gentle sail up the Dart this morning in beautiful weather to an excellent berth (and lunch) in Totnes - that's pleasant

 

[Bristolfashion]

~ We have co-existed peacefully for decades. it is the Iberian orcas who are the aggressors, not yachties.

I think you mean, they have been peaceful,

"At least 160 orcas have died in captivity, including at least 44 at SeaWorld."

"Competition with fishermen also led to orcas being regarded as pests. In the waters of the Pacific Northwest and Iceland, the shooting of orcas was accepted and even encouraged by governments. As an indication of the intensity of shooting that occurred until fairly recently, about 25% of the orcas captured in Puget Sound for aquariums through 1970 bore bullet scars. The U.S. Navy claimed to have deliberately killed hundreds of orcas in Icelandic waters in 1956 with machine guns, rockets, and depth charges."

Perhaps they're just getting their own back?

 

[capnsensible]

Nope. They are just stupid animals that just happen to be slightly less stupid than lots of others.

 

[GHA]

Perhaps they're just getting their own back?

Seems unlikely, aggressive revenge is a destructive human trait uncommon in other animals. Though they do have advanced social structures, in one pod in alaska an Orca started swimming round with a dead fish on it's head & very quickly they all copied the habit.
This could be nothing more than play or possibly training juveniles for hunting, they disable whales by removing fins. No one knows despite the shouting & screaming of the cock sure on social media. (Bertrand Russell nailed that )
It's almost certainly not aggressive though, if anger & revenge was part of it every boat they came across would be sunk within moments, but they don't have or need emotions like that. Nearly all animals apart from homo sapiens just don't go in for random destruction of their home & contents . Evolution works much better than that.

 

[Bristolfashion]

I was being flippant in suggesting that orcas are really "getting their own back", just pointing out that humans idea of "living peacefully" with an animal species is usually us hardly suffering a loss and them being slaughtered or their environment and/or food supply being trashed!

 

[webcraft]

Your personal opinions will change nothing though. Killing the last few apex ocean predators isn't going to happen just so we can go play on our toy boats. Just how far down the line any scientific deterrents are is unknown, but it is happening.

Didn't you spend five years on the hard then go to the Canaries? I have been sailing up and down the Algarve coast for the last three years, talking to other local sailors. We encountered three orcas off the entrance to the Ria Formosa last year - an area where, as you should know, it is very difficult to stay in less than 20m due to the entertaining underwater topography.

I also know someone who successfully used firecrackers to deter an attack. No orcas were harmed, but then neither were any boats. Firecrackers work, and do not hurt orcas. 9

I am sorry, you are a nice guy but your holier than thou I know everything attitude can become a little wearing. Give it a break, eh?

 

[Stingo]

...

I am sorry, you are a nice guy but your holier than thou I know everything attitude can become a little wearing. Give it a break, eh?

We need a bullseye emoji added to the "like" options

 

[GHA]

Didn't you spend five years on the hard then go to the Canaries? I have been sailing up and down the Algarve coast for the last three years, talking to other local sailors. We encountered three orcas off the entrance to the Ria Formosa last year - an area where, as you should know, it is very difficult to stay in less than 20m due to the entertaining underwater topography.

I also know someone who successfully used firecrackers to deter an attack. No orcas were harmed, but then neither were any boats. Firecrackers work, and do not hurt orcas. 9

I am sorry, you are a nice guy but your holier than thou I know everything attitude can become a little wearing. Give it a break, eh?

I`ve been very close to an incident, keeping close in to Sagres as that works to stay safe while a boat a little further out got spun around & screamed mayday so have been close and it was awful. Not holier than anyone, just pointing out that shouting personal opinions on social media does absolutely nothing whatsoever. Nothing changes, just makes your feet hurt. We're all just ranting blokes on the web here, irrelevant in the real world.

 

[capnsensible]

 

[webcraft]

I was being flippant in suggesting that orcas are really "getting their own back", just pointing out that humans idea of "living peacefully" with an animal species is usually us hardly suffering a loss and them being slaughtered or their environment and/or food supply being trashed!

Yachties are not trashing their environment or competing for food.

No tins of tuna on board either of my boats.

 

[Bristolfashion]

Yachties are not trashing their environment or competing for food.

No tins of tuna on board either of my boats.

A previous poster claimed mutually harmless relationships between orcas & humans - a lot more orcas ended up dead or injured than humans. This pattern applies to almost all of nature.

Not really a comment about the current difficulties yachties are having with orcas.

 

[capnsensible]

Yachties are not trashing their environment or competing for food.

No tins of tuna on board either of my boats.

Barbatte is the tuna capital of the world. Delicious.