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'Scary moment' as orcas disrupt ocean boat race
- zgluck 3y agoThis needs boosting. I mean, there's actual underwater video of this thing that has been happening lately in e.g. Portugal.
- breput 3y agoCanadian website, but still the same general area as previous orca encounters: "A pod of killer whales bumped one of the boats in an endurance sailing race as it approached the Strait of Gibraltar"
- zgluck 3y agoAh, sorry. (I edited my comment to remove that part.)
- euroderf 3y agoThey are just trying to traverse the Causeway of Gibraltar [orca/whale perspective] and are being harassed by stupid noisy critters leaping out of the land to block their way and annoy them. So one of them "kicked" a boat.
- ayemel 3y agoRelated: https://www.livescience.com/animals/orcas/orcas-have-sunk-3-boats-in-europe-and-appear-to-be-teaching-others-to-do-the-same-but-why https://www.livescience.com/animals/orcas/orcas-have-sunk-3-... tldr: orcas are teaching each other how to sink boats.
- causality0 3y agoI love how the article asks "why?" when humans are an apocalyptic plague on their entire universe.
- wudangmonk 3y agoIn the case of the orca this is an easy question to answer. Its for the lulz.
- falcolas 3y agoGiven how orcas were wearing dead fish hats for a year or so, then abandoned the practice entirely, "for the lulz" isn't necessarily wrong.
- p0pcult 3y ago[dead]
- pfannkuchen 3y agoDo orcas engage in an equivalent of intertribal warfare? If not they might not even have instincts for group defense or retaliation (except in the context of one off encounters with predators).
- AlecSchueler 3y agoNot all-out warfare but there can be inter-pod skirmishes. They also hunt in groups and communicate the movement of their prey to co-ordinate their attacks together.
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- lucasyvas 3y agoAlternative title: Scary moment as boat race disrupts orcas.
- rcme 3y agoHow do you know the orcas were disrupted? > the latest encounter in what researchers say is a growing trend of aggressive interactions with Iberian orcas. Sounds like the orcas were acting with intention.
- c420 3y agoOrcanizing
- qorrect 3y agoI'll allow it
- AlecSchueler 3y agoOne of the hypotheses being floated around is that the orcas are fighting back against boats after one of their elders were traumatised, and others include the idea that they're basically protesting against noise pollution, overfishing, dangers to water mammals etc.
- geraneum 3y agoYes, I agree. It’s very unlikely that humans disrupt the natural habitat of other species.
- swalling 3y ago“They seemed more aggressive/playful when we were sailing at speed. Once we slowed down they also started to be less aggressive in their attacks” This is an interesting detail. It definitely supports the leading theories, that either they’re playing (chasing fast moving things is more fun) or reacting defensively after the pod experienced a ship collision. Orcas are afraid of literally nothing. They can eat great white sharks and blue whale calves. The only solution here is probably to explore something as a nonlethal deterrent, like spikes on hulls/rudders or an underwater klaxon.
- prh8 3y ago> only solution here is probably to explore something as a nonlethal deterrent Or we could stop boating in their space
- swalling 3y agoGood luck halting all small craft boating in the Strait of Gibraltar.
- zzzeek 3y agoIt would appear the orcas do not share your defeatist attitude
- SllX 3y agoIt would be better if they did share his defeatist attitude because it isn’t a fight they can win either, nor one humans are likely to choose to lose. I like Orcas. I don’t want to see them attacked. :(
- AlecSchueler 3y agoIs there really no middle ground where we can attempt to reach a diplomatic solution?
- 3y ago
- mhb 3y agoMaybe they're trying to warn us about something down there.
- spydum 3y agoOr impending planetary destruction? So long, and thanks for all the fish!
- squarefoot 3y agoParent might be referring to this recent TV series: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0808491/ https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0808491/
- bitwize 3y agoThey were more likely referring to The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.
- squarefoot 3y agoI'm familiar with THGTTG, but recalled they were dolphins, not orcas.
- dylan604 3y agoI really want this to be something that has been going on since long ago, like "there be dragons" long ago. Only, the brave strong men didn't want to admit that some cute looking Free Willy animal was causing the havoc, so they all agreed to make it scary sea monsters type of tales.
- qup 3y agoIf that were to come true, what would it change for you?
- dylan604 3y agoEverything
- ofalkaed 3y agoWhales and killer whales ramming boats is nothing new, only thing that really changed is that most boats are now strong enough to survive it so we get the report and the internet means everyone gets to hear about it. In the wooden boat days a whale or orca could effortlessly sink your boat and when you read the writings of the early small boat sailors (cruising and racing sorts) they are very nervous when whales are in sight because they all knew the damage they could do to their boat. The sailors were perfectly OK with admitting their fears of orca and whales and did not find them cute.
- undebuggable 3y agoI always considered the stories about sea monsters to be greatly exaggerated.
- dylan604 3y agoWhat? No, that’s impossible. Next you’ll be saying mermaids aren’t real too!
- undebuggable 3y agoOnly reverse mermaids are known to exists.
- nelox 3y agoSome relevant resources: Cruising Association orca notification system https://www.theca.org.uk/orcas https://www.theca.org.uk/orcas GT Orca Atlantica - information about the Iberian orca and interactions https://www.orcaiberica.org/en https://www.orcaiberica.org/en
- bitwize 3y agoRemember, orcas are our friends -- they're just not friends with yacht-owning billionaires.
- expertentipp 3y agoWhat we need is larger orcas, and more of them, and also air-orcas.
- elorant 3y agoThis will become really scary if they start attacking sailboats in the open ocean. While you're close to land you can always call for help. Imagine being in the middle of nowhere and they destroy your rudders so you have no way of changing direction. Even worse at some cases they have attacked the hull.
- qorrect 3y agoThey sank 3 ships just recently https://www.livescience.com/animals/orcas/orcas-have-sunk-3-boats-in-europe-and-appear-to-be-teaching-others-to-do-the-same-but-why https://www.livescience.com/animals/orcas/orcas-have-sunk-3-...
- ofalkaed 3y agoSailboats can steer with just their sails, will limit the directions you can go but you are not completely adrift. Mainly it means you stop being picky about where you make landfall and just pick the nearest port given prevailing winds.
- nostromo 3y agoI welcome people having a healthy fear of orcas. If you see orcas, you should move away from them and leave them alone. Some states, like Washington, are passing laws requiring that you stay a certain distance from them at all times.
- paxys 3y agoI really want to know if orca attacks are actually happening with more frequency or just their reporting has increased.
- not_the_fda 3y agoOrcas are hooligans and have a culture with fads such as wearing dead salmon on their snouts. They are just having fun at the expense of us humans. https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/killer-whale-orca-trends https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/killer-whale-orca-tren...
- quaintdev 3y agoProbably their way of getting back at us for increased ocean temperatures.
- ramraj07 3y agoI see no problems with this. We invade their domain and ruin it, we just gotta play by their rules now.
- euroderf 3y agoReverse the terminology for land and water domains. We emerge like vermin from their coastal airs to invade their waters. We cannot fly in their water - we crawl along the surface - but we are still a big fat PITA.
- AHOHA 3y agoI’m team orcas no matter what!
- phendrenad2 3y agoIt's time to bring back the harpoon
- two_in_one 3y agoThe problem is orca is about the size of yacht, and can literally sink it. Second, on yacht you can install only a toy harpoon, if you want sails, rudder, dinghy, etc... The easy option would be something annoying. Like underwater ultrasound speaker. Better responder which will respond to their pings with sh*tload of garbage.