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Researchers attach cameras to orcas, revealing a marvelous underwater world
- WhaleBasketball 6y agoReminds me of the dolphin hacker in Johnny Mnemonic
- me_me_me 6y agoOrcas are most terrifying animals when you know what they are capable of. I have only scanned through the article but have not found how they attached the cameras. I wonder how did they do that.
- deleted 6y ago[deleted]
- neuronic 6y agoIf Free Willy is any indication they waited until an Orca jumped above them and quickly attached a camera to its belly. To make my comment more productive, maybe they attach it to the fins using sticks and bait, like with sharks: https://phys.org/news/2016-06-camera-tag-white-sharks.html https://phys.org/news/2016-06-camera-tag-white-sharks.html
- m463 6y agoLet's just say Johah sort of fell into this line of research.
- alejo 6y ago"It’s tricky work. Finding the orcas is the first problem. Getting a tag on a wild orca is the next one. It takes strength and dexterity to extend a 25-foot-long carbon-fiber pole from a bouncing skiff to tap the 2-pound tag onto a swimming killer whale, aiming for the area right below the dorsal fin. So far the team has been able to tag two southern residents, L87 and L88, and nine northern residents."
- me_me_me 6y agoThanks :)
- AlbertoGP 6y agoMore details in this post they made in Facebook the 28th of August: > It takes a lot of skill and expertise to place a suction-cupped data-logger onto a killer whale. > The most difficult part of tagging a whale is piloting the vessel into the proper position next to the whales. Fortunately, we have a skipper with years of whale-watching experience to safely navigate near them. He starts each approach by analysing the behaviour of the whales to establish their swimming speed and heading. He will then parallel them and gently slide towards an individual until we are at just the right distance. Any harassment or sudden movements on our part, would cause the whale to avoid us. They are very aware of our presence and behaviour ---- they just don’t know our intent. > Polarized sunglasses helps the tagger standing in the pulpit at the front of the Steller Quest to see the whales underwater. As he senses that the whale is coming to the surface to breathe, he will lower a very long pole (25.5 ft, ~8 m) and place the tag near the dorsal fin. > The carbon fiber pole holding the tag only weighs about 10 lbs (4.5 kg), and the tag is about 2 lbs (0.9 kg). However as the pole is lowered to a horizontal position, the weight of this 2-lb tag (as felt by the tagger at the pivot point of the pole) increases to about 100 lbs (45 kg). The tagger’s front arm on the pole feels it is lifting 100 lbs, while his back arm pushes down against 100 lbs of force to counter balance the pole. It takes incredible strength and skill. > All four suction cups need to be pushed firmly against the whale. To a person, it would feel like being pushed or shoved as the suction cups are pushed flat. However, to a 3,000 kg (~6,500 lb) killer whale, it appears to be a relatively soft touch. Some killer whales shudder briefly when touched, while others show no reaction. However, all of the whales we have tagged continue about their business seemingly unaware of the hitchhiker they just picked up. To a killer whale, the weight of the tag is like the weight of a wedding ring worn by a person. https://www.facebook.com/marinemammal/posts/3426676784050634 https://www.facebook.com/marinemammal/posts/3426676784050634
- jnellis 6y agoI used to work a chartered fishing boat with my father out of Blaine and we'd often get orcas swimming alongside us so close that you could reach out and pet them, which some customers did. They are very curious.
- coldcode 6y agoOrcas are terrifying to sea creatures, but oddly enough are not interested in humans.
- CrLf 6y agoThey’ve been attacking boats in the Gibraltar region recently, though.
- nicoburns 6y agoThe relationship is also largely reciprocal. Humans are terrifying land creatures, but don't often attack Orcas.
- deleted 6y ago[deleted]
- BurningFrog 6y agoOrcas knows what food they like. We're not on the list.
- ceejayoz 6y agoThere are interesting stories of human/orca cooperation, even. This one even comes with photographic and physical evidence: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Killer_whales_of_Eden,_New_South_Wales https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Killer_whales_of_Eden,_New_Sou...
- protomyth 6y ago
- Jaruzel 6y ago> Orcas are most terrifying animals when you know what they are capable of. They are not [erroneously] called 'Killer Whales' for nothing.
- JackFr 6y agoWhat is “erroneous” about referring to them as killer whales?
- Jaruzel 6y agoBecause Orcas are not whales, they are dolphins.
- JackFr 6y agoFrom Wikipedia: “The killer whale or orca is a toothed whale belonging to the oceanic dolphin family, of which it is the largest member. The toothed whales are a parvorder of cetaceans that includes dolphins, porpoises, and all other whales possessing teeth, such as the beaked whales and sperm whales.“ So, yes, in the sense that sperm whales and porpoises are also dolphins, it too is a dolphin. but that’s not typically how we use the word dolphin.
- thaumasiotes 6y agoI think it's normal to consider that porpoises are dolphins. Sperm whales, not so much.
- dwaltrip 6y agoI’m not sure if this settles the debate, but sperm whales and porpoises are in a different (super?) family than dolphins and killer whales. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Physeteroidea https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Physeteroidea https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Delphinoidea https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Delphinoidea
- arunix 6y ago> toothed whales are a parvorder of cetaceans that includes dolphins, porpoises, and all other whales possessing teeth The article for whales [1] linked from that sentence says "They are an informal grouping within the infraorder Cetacea, usually excluding dolphins and porpoises." [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whale https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whale
- Kiro 6y agoSwimming with wild orcas is a popular activity in Norway where you get as close as an arm length from them while they circle you.
- sidibe 6y agoAre you sure you're talking about orcas, I'd think there'd be videos of that? Seems crazy. I've only seen one video of a lady swimming with orcas but she was very familiar with them
- yashap 6y agoI just searched for “Norway swimming with orcas” on YouTube, and surprisingly a lot of adventure-tourism type videos showed up.
- Kiro 6y agoI'm on my phone but there should be a lot on YouTube. Here's one such company: https://www.orcanorway.info/services/snorkeling-with-orcas https://www.orcanorway.info/services/snorkeling-with-orcas No prior experience or training needed so not just for professionals. You just jump in with pretty basic snorkeling equipment.
- ironmagma 6y agoAre they more terrifying than humans? We are capable of a lot more, for better or worse.
- mbrameld 6y agoIn the post you're replying to, most is an adverb modifying terrifying meaning "to a very great degree". It isn't saying they're THE most terrifying. It's another way of saying they're very terrifying.
- throwawaysea 6y agoThey are capable animals, but I think they aren't terrifying to humans because they seem intelligent/sentient and display group social dynamics that are similar to our own. There are also no records of orcas attacking humans in the wild. Most encounters look like this: https://youtu.be/Vaq4pHxM5P4 https://youtu.be/Vaq4pHxM5P4
- ironmagma 6y agoThere are records of orca attacks on humans, just not deaths. Here are a few: http://www.takepart.com/article/2014/02/24/did-wild-orca-really-just-attack-diver-new-zealand http://www.takepart.com/article/2014/02/24/did-wild-orca-rea... https://nypost.com/2020/10/10/killer-whales-orchestrating-revenge-attacks-on-boats-off-spain/ https://nypost.com/2020/10/10/killer-whales-orchestrating-re...
- known 6y ago95% Oceans floor is unexplored;
- tehlike 6y agoSuch a funny mistake to call them killer whales.
- friendlybus 6y agoSeals and a lot of ocean life think it's accurate.
- tehlike 6y agoit's not the killer part i am talking about, it's the whale part. see my other message.
- JackFr 6y agoWhy is it a funny mistake?
- evgen 6y agoI believe that some are keying in on the word order and how 'killer whale' sounds like a term for a particularly carnivorous whale when in fact the creature in question is an ocean predator who sometimes happens to kill whales.
- tehlike 6y agobecause orcas are actually part of Delphinidae family, which is dolphin. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Killer_whale https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Killer_whale
- deleted 6y ago[deleted]
- bredren 6y agoThis is interesting in of itself, but it’s too bad the researchers chose to post the content native to Facebook. At this point it feels like science and the products of scientific work should be very wary of Facebook for hosting, despite the simplicity and breadth of distribution.
- NoOneCaresAtAll 6y agoHow is this top comment? Where is Dang?
- dang 6y agoI've marked it off-topic now. Just a reminder, so as not to pick on anybody personally, that the issue with these is not the comment itself but the upvotes that pin it to the top of a thread. It's a tragedy of the commons in that no one upvote does that, but the sum of the upvotes does. Then we end up with a generic argument about Facebook instead of a discussion about orcas.
- bredren 6y agoThanks for the comment and your work, dang.
- dylan604 6y agoI would have assumed YouTube. Facebook may or may not show it's very large audience your posts in other people's feeds. Also, YT is searchable on site and via web search.
- rgovostes 6y agoResearchers have also been attaching beacons (via time-release suction cups) to sharks and to follow them with autonomous vehicles outfitted with cameras. You may have seen the footage on Discovery Channel programs. Article on the SharkCam: https://www.whoi.edu/press-room/news-release/remus-sharkcam/ https://www.whoi.edu/press-room/news-release/remus-sharkcam/ Video on the TurtleCam: https://www.whoi.edu/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/Final-TurtleCam-Oceanus-1.mp4 https://www.whoi.edu/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/Final-Turtle... Recovering a lost SharkCam: https://vimeo.com/172975132 https://vimeo.com/172975132
- aksss 6y agoaren't all suction cups essentially time-release?
- rgovostes 6y agoIf I recall, these have some kind of tube that is plugged on one end with some time-release mechanism, perhaps a material that slowly dissolves in the water. Eventually water enters the tube and equalizes pressure on both sides, causing it to detach. This allows them to recover the beacon and make another deployment.
- aynyc 6y agoI was talking to my dad a few years ago. I told him that Orcas never killed a human in the wild. My dad goes, that's because they know how to bury a body!
- disown 6y agoI've always wondered why we haven't done more of this. Why not put cameras on eagles, jaguars, pythons, etc and see what their lives really are like rather than studying them in captivity mostly.