In a Bering Sea battle of killer whales vs. fishermen, the whales are winning

adn.com ^ | June 19, 2017 | Suzanna Caldwell

[C19fan]

In the Bering Sea, near the edge the continental shelf, fishermen are trying to escape a predator that seems to outwit them at every turn, stripping their fishing lines and lurking behind their vessels.

The predators are pods of killer whales chasing down the halibut and black cod caught by longline fishermen. Fishermen say the whales are becoming a common sight — and problem — in recent years, as they've gone from an occasional pest to apparently targeting the fishermen's lines.

Fishermen say they can harvest 20,000 to 30,000 pounds of halibut in a single day, only to harvest next to nothing the next when a pod of killer whales recognizes their boat. The hooks will be stripped clean, longtime Bering Sea longliner Jay Hebert said in a phone interview this week. Sometimes there will be just halibut "lips" still attached to hooks — if anything at all.

[C19fan]

Smart whales. Let the humans do all the hard work then swipe everything at the last minute.

[Travis T. OJustice]

Low hanging fruit.

Fruitti di mari.

[HiTech RedNeck]

The whales are obviously doing it just for the “halibut.”

Wonder whether something like an automated stun gun would help. Killer whales get near a line of hooks or a net — ZZZAP

[blackdog]

Orca-crats.

[C19fan]

The Feds will thrown the boat owner in jail. It is a Federal crime to disturb marine mammals.

[17th Miss Regt]

No need to work. EBT

Easy Boat Treats

[HiTech RedNeck]

Shoo! Shoo! Shoo!

Can’t think of anything else except maybe a coarse mesh like chain link fence is made of, into which the halibut can swim but the killer whales cannot.

[BBB333]

They are not really whales.

I was reeling a salmon into a boat once, in the Gastineau Channel (Juneau). While reaching over the transom to grab the salmon with a hook an orca breached and took the salmon.

Why I did not soil myself I have no idea...

Smart mammal that orca.

[HiTech RedNeck]

Or could they team up with, say, Eskimos who get a free pass on whale hunting. The fishermen fish; the Eskimos whale.

[RayChuang88]

Here's the problem: Orcas (killer whales) are among THE most intelligent mammals on Earth outside of humans. As such, they figured out really fast how to get essentially a free meal. And since Orca pods can communicate with other pods over long distances, it won't be long before when the fishermen go out to catch halibut for the first time during the fishing season the Orcas are waiting out there already.

[HiTech RedNeck]

Well hello, Orca. You didn’t have any need to fear. It just wanted the salmon. It didn’t really care about you.

[HiTech RedNeck]

Because the orcas have marked it on their calendars.

Some kind of shielding fence might be the only possibility. Big enough mesh to let the halibut through. Small enough to shut out the orcas.

[InterceptPoint]

In recent study by UC Davis students the Intelligence of whales was compared to the average Democrat. Although the study was repressed it eventually leaked and the fact that the whales finished well ahead of the Dems is now considered common knowledge. 😎😎😎

[katana]

Their brains are bigger than ours. Just saying.

[BBB333]

I know.

It’s a big-lotta teeth awful close to my arm, though!

[null and void]

The chumming scene in Jaws comes to mind...

[rlmorel]

One of my favorite anecdotes I read about intelligent animals involved crows.

There was a hunter who lived on a large parcel of land, and every year when deer hunting season opened, he would go out the door, trudge into the woods behind his house, and bag a deer.

He noticed that, for some reason, on the exact day deer hunting season began, crows would just appear outside his house in the trees. The trees would be barren, but on that day, they would appear in flocks even before he left his house. As he gutted his deer, the crows would swarm it and feast on the gut pack.

This really puzzled him, as if they somehow knew exactly what date it was.

He figured out after a while that the crows were watching him through his windows in the days leading up to the season...bringing his gun out, cleaning and preparing it, getting all his gear together. And it somehow got communicated to all the other crows in the area that deer hunting day was here.

As for orcas...this video really highlights how smart they are. In this video, a penguin is being pursued by a pack of orcas who patiently try to cut it off, bit by bit, even going under the raft, until the penguin leaps out of the water with the orcas hot on his tail, and takes refuge inside their zodiac. The penguin then placidly walks on the edge, as the Orcas, only a few feet away looking at him, and he nearly seems to be taunting them!

Link to Youtube Video: Penguin escapes Orcas by leaping into a zodiac!

What I found interesting is that those orcas could have easily made short business of those boats, but it is almost as if they knew that if they began messing with humans...their days would be numbered, so they just swam away to look for other prey!

[Pelham]

“So long, and thanks for all the fish”

[rockinqsranch]

:) Good post. I think I believe it.

[lurk]

Orcas continuously learn new stuff. And they share it with their pods.

They have brains. Good thing they don’t have thumbs.