Orca attack

greeny

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Attacks near the UK are not unprecedented. There was an incident last year in the western approaches if I remember correctly.
 

HenrikH

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Somewhere I read about a boat that bought buckets of sand. Pouring sand into the water made the orcas moving away.
 

Stingo

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A few months ago, on the WhatsApp Orca group, someone posted that during his US military service, their unit had tried to find ways of blocking sonar (of the marine electronic type) as a defence mechanism. Sand worked. The theory being that sand scatters the sonar signal, making sonar useless.

There have been several people in the group that have had success with a few handfuls of sand, but not everyone.

If I can find the screenshot that I took of that comment, I'll edit this post and add it.
 

Stingo

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A few months ago, on the WhatsApp Orca group, someone posted that during his US military service, their unit had tried to find ways of blocking sonar (of the marine electronic type) as a defence mechanism. Sand worked. The theory being that sand scatters the sonar signal, making sonar useless.

There have been several people in the group that have had success with a few handfuls of sand, but not everyone.

If I can find the screenshot that I took of that comment, I'll edit this post and add it.
Found it. You decide if a few handfuls of sand might help?
Screenshot_20230508-080948_WhatsApp.jpg
 

KevinV

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So far the orcas have yet to discover they content but they eat seals. Can’t be very long before some crew end up in the water and then the truth will out.
Being land based we are bony, and have (relatively) low fat content. Not very nutritious.
That's not to say that they wouldn't have to learn this fact through experience - I certainly will not be volunteering to jump in with this lot.
 

nortada

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Being land based we are bony, and have (relatively) low fat content. Not very nutritious.
That's not to say that they wouldn't have to learn this fact through experience - I certainly will not be volunteering to jump in with this lot.

There is a suggestion that with the reducing stocks of tuna, hungry orcas are ‘researching’ alternative sources of food. Although may might no be the first choice of food, a hungry animal is unlikely to ignore any available source of nourishment.

Could put a whole new meaning to Solent Sandwiches.
 

Boathook

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There is a suggestion that with the reducing stocks of tuna, hungry orcas are ‘researching’ alternative sources of food. Although may might no be the first choice of food, a hungry animal is unlikely to ignore any available source of nourishment.

Could put a whole new meaning to Solent Sandwiches.
As per post 1331 by @stranded if large tuna are being caught up near the south coast it is only time before the orcas follow.
 

billskip

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Interesting. Just hope the Iberian orcas have read this article. Until 2018 they didn’t attack sailing boats. Habits change.
There's about 14 murders a day in UK, the multi millions it cost to police doesn't stop them, when the catch the perp they dont kill them, so why kill Orcas? Just lock them up and give them a telly to watch with 3 good meals a day.
 

Beneteau381

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I think it's impossible to know what made them adopt this behaviour.

But they are probably smart enough to know the difference between a yacht and a fishing boat.

For whatever reason, it seems that they just enjoy playing rough with yachts.

I have head of a few attacks on fishing boats, but not as many as on yachts. Probably fishing boats are harder to damage...

I am pretty sure that if the fishermen thought that the Orcas were endangering thier boats or their livelihood, they would take action to solve the problem, and we would never hear a word of it.
We didnt!
 
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