Orca attack

Graham376 said:
14 sounds a lot (too many) but, but how many boats do you think would have been out during the same period along the coasts of Spain and Portugal, without having been attacked? The Algarve coast alone has several thousand berths and moorings and it's only 130 miles long.
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Most of them never go out though. When i go out for the day, i maybe see 2 or 3 sailing on passage. The others are mostly motor boats going to the nearest beach and more dolphin boats out there than anything else. This time of year most people are busy finding berths or moorings for the winter, not out sailing so I think 14 in the last 20 days is worrying. Were almost in November and if I remember correctly, the orca are usually back in the straits or certainly heading that way by now. Maybe thats why theres a glut of interactions and itll settle down in a week or two for the winter.
 
I sailed down the coast from uk to Spain this year with Orca attacks everywhere. I don't advocate culling but I do advocate some action. An Australian I met could not understand why we don't tag them all so we can track them accurately. They do this with Great whites to great effect. If we knew where they were in real time it would be much easier to avoid them .
 
Leslie frank said:
I sailed down the coast from uk to Spain this year with Orca attacks everywhere. I don't advocate culling but I do advocate some action. An Australian I met could not understand why we don't tag them all so we can track them accurately. They do this with Great whites to great effect. If we knew where they were in real time it would be much easier to avoid them .
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There's been lots of discussions about tagging the orcas on the orca.pt group. Seems it's not as easy or simple as many believe. Too many orcas to tag them all so they have in past years tagged one or two in each group. Tags have varying longevity in that some fall off relatively quickly and stop being active, some last till the battery runs out, a month or two at best. The tags only transmit when the tag is at the surface, giving limited transmission times. Then the groups split up so not all groups contain a tagged orca. They have used the data from the successful tags to locate some of the groups but they can never be certain they know where they all are at all times because of the above reasons. It's easy to sit here saying why don't we tag all the orcas. Finding them all to do that would be well nigh impossible and massively resource intensive. And then, if they do succeed, half the tags fall off or stop working when the battery fails.
 
I dunno if this has already been mentioned, or if there is any evidence of effectiveness, (doubt it) but one of the Sailing Fair Isle videos that I watched yesterday mentions discharging the black water holding tank as a possible deterrent.

No use to me, since I dont have one, but lots of bigger boats do.
 
ducked said:
I dunno if this has already been mentioned, or if there is any evidence of effectiveness, (doubt it) but one of the Sailing Fair Isle videos that I watched yesterday mentions discharging the black water holding tank as a possible deterrent.
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Funny you should mention that as a recent edition of QI (UK TV program) revealed that some species of whales, when threatened by Orcas, will bunch together and indulge in a "group poop". This sends the Orcas off in the opposite direction...
 
alahol2 said:
Funny you should mention that as a recent edition of QI (UK TV program) revealed that some species of whales, when threatened by Orcas, will bunch together and indulge in a "group poop". This sends the Orcas off in the opposite direction...
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Interesting, and a bit surprising. I'd have thought the "slick" would disperse/be left behind pretty quickly, but perhaps the targets manouvre to stay within it.

Rather fastidious of the Orca, though.
 
alahol2 said:
Funny you should mention that as a recent edition of QI (UK TV program) revealed that some species of whales, when threatened by Orcas, will bunch together and indulge in a "group poop". This sends the Orcas off in the opposite direction...
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Yes but they did say it was tons of the stuff.
That is one big holding tank.:poop::eek:
 
Goldie said:
They’re having a go further north too, off Tromso:

Panic in the Arctic as orcas begin attacking fishing boats: a first in recorded history that has scientists alarmed
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There's something 'not quite right' about that website and more specifically the stories on it. If you check the other stories on the site they reference groups of seals, groups of Marlin, groups of walrus, giant squid etc all 'threatening' marine traffic in some way or other.
I can't imagine what the site is hoping to achieve but it all smacks of fake news.
 
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