Orcas, Portugal and Unexpected Inspections

You may need something slightly stronger than a sparkler to deter a 5 tonne whale killer.

A paravane on an anchor chain towed astern ? An electric fence unit with terminals that can be trailer astern ?
 
shan said:
Oh dear. I knew they had been attacking sailboats but attacking fishing boats is not going to end well.
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True. While I can marvel and the beauty and intelligence of these beasts even WHILE they are chewing on my boat and ramming it so hard I had to keep checking for water ingress (and I'm definitely getting the hull checked as well)....

.... fishing boats will not put up with this. They'll take matters into their own hands.
 
Koeketiene said:
1. Can you blame them? It's their livelihood that is at stake.
2. Fishing boats are far less likely to be GRP. Don't think steel or aluminium is 'chewable' - even for an Orca.
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1. I’m not judging them. Also - it’s only a matter of time before a complete vessel loss and possible lives lost. We were close to the harbour wall in Sines and it took ages for the tow. Luckily the seas were calm and there was no current to speak of.
2. I was surrounded by GRP fishing boats - yes there are steel trawlers but the ones who head out daily are GRP. Loads of them.
 
pandos said:
as a second option maybe try depth charges, ?
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Possibly not so daft an idea. Not enough to injure them, but enough to make their ears ring a bit. It's called aversion therapy, and has the advantage that it doesn't do any long-term harm.

As for ramming and sinking boats, that does seem unlikely. It's one thing to chew an easily accessible bit that's hanging off the back, quite another to batter something hard enough to make a hole. You'd have to hid you boat quite hard with a hammer to crack the hull. An orca's head is a lot bigger than a hammer, and relatively soft in comparison, so it would take a hell of a bang to damage the hull. Yes, a boat could be sunk if the rudder post seals were damaged, but I don't see it happening through ramming.
 
cimota said:
1. I’m not judging them. Also - it’s only a matter of time before a complete vessel loss and possible lives lost. We were close to the harbour wall in Sines and it took ages for the tow. Luckily the seas were calm and there was no current to speak of.
2. I was surrounded by GRP fishing boats - yes there are steel trawlers but the ones who head out daily are GRP. Loads of them.
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I think a lot of folk would be in favour of an organised cull of the most prominent offenders, Darwin would sort out the rest. Excess populations would be trimmed, it might create a useful export spinoff to Japan and it would be a general tonic for the forces of pragmatism.

What will probably happen is that boats will be lost, matters will get worse and people will sit on their hands. Eventually there will be semi effective action "for the overall wellbeing of global populations". It would be a great deal easier to knock it on the head now.






"I decided to ship my yacht overland to a repair place and went to tell the Police, only to be told that even though it's being hauled out and shipped off to repair, they still want to do the inspection and they say there's a charge for it!"


BTW..................did you sort out that bizarre business with your boat?



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Supposing, just supposing that these whalekiller dolphins are not the intelligent natural predators but the equivalent of some of our human terrorists groups but cross-species villains, does that alter the ethical POV about the use of lethal force by humans ?

Or does the dolphin verbal history, passed down from generation to generation, contain accounts of the hundreds of thousands that humans have killed in the past ?

Anthropogenic ethics are not easy when applied to animals in the deep blue sea.
 
sarabande said:
Supposing, just supposing that these whalekiller dolphins are not the intelligent natural predators but the equivalent of some of our human terrorists groups but cross-species villains, does that alter the ethical POV about the use of lethal force by humans ?

Or does the dolphin verbal history, passed down from generation to generation, contain accounts of the hundreds of thousands that humans have killed in the past ?

Anthropogenic ethics are not easy when applied to animals in the deep blue sea.
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Well just in case I venture into those waters I'll be putting "I love Dingle on my rudder..." And a ' wheres Fungi "sticker on the keel...https://youtu.be/15tC7Ko_ZlQ
 
Ammonite said:
It makes me think that what's happening off Portugal and Spain is only the start....
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Its already growing. Originally it was put down to 3 juvenile orcas. Now it is clearly more than three. The data shows that interactions occurred in the North of Portugal and down off Cadiz on consecutive days and several in different locations within a few days of each other.
 
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