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Raging killer whales are launching terrifying ‘orchestrated’ attacks on boats injuring sailors – and no one knows why
The Sun ^ | 9/13/20 | Chiara Fiorillo

Posted on 09/19/2020 6:28:19 AM PDT by Rebelbase

click here to read article


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To: Travis McGee

the incident that inspired the book moby dick, i forget the book, claimed that thudding on the deck fixing whale boats caused the whale to be threatened and the whale attacked the larger vessel... but not the smaller crafts in the ocean...


81 posted on 09/19/2020 8:19:08 AM PDT by teeman8r (Armageddon won't be pretty, but it's not like it's the end of the world or something)
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To: rktman

Very bold of you to assume they use half their brain.

I had a very close call with an orca about 80’ down on a cliff dive. It pulled on my equipment too. I managed to barely not panic and ascend, and that day I gave up diving.


82 posted on 09/19/2020 8:20:27 AM PDT by Bulwyf
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To: Rebelbase

remember when all the dolphins were washing up dead on the shore... i believe that dolphins war over fishing rights.

pod against large pod...


83 posted on 09/19/2020 8:20:44 AM PDT by teeman8r (Armageddon won't be pretty, but it's not like it's the end of the world or something)
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To: Travis McGee

Chuckles, my first thought was steel hull sail boats are the way to go.


84 posted on 09/19/2020 8:21:14 AM PDT by Nuc 1.1 (Liberals aren't Patriots. Remember 1789!)
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To: HartleyMBaldwin

That’s twenty-four Class III licenses, right there.


85 posted on 09/19/2020 8:31:52 AM PDT by Rinnwald
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To: Rinnwald

Yeah, probably not feasible. Sure would be nice mounted on a good-sized flatbed, though.


86 posted on 09/19/2020 8:44:20 AM PDT by HartleyMBaldwin
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To: Rebelbase

Remembering an old SEA HUNT episode “KILLER WHALE” from around 1958 in which a Killer Whale is attacking divers.

Lloyd Bridges declares “We need to wipe them out!”


87 posted on 09/19/2020 8:46:24 AM PDT by Ruy Dias de Bivar
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To: SmokingJoe

I read the original book. Twice. Great read!

Lots of excess info on the life of the whales. Melville must have gotten paid by the word.


88 posted on 09/19/2020 8:50:19 AM PDT by Ruy Dias de Bivar
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To: Rebelbase

LoL! Yes, the cards for 2020 have certainly been wild.

I believe this is the first one you can definitely assign to the “Nature Unpredicted” portion of the card.

(I’m excluding COVID-19 and the wildfires in CA for the moment because the amount of human involvement in their start is still being discerned/debated.)

I’ve been trying to take a presumptive perspective of a killer whale toward a sailboat as a little thought experiment. The article didn’t give information on the size of the sailboats but I’m guessing 25-40 foot as this is a middling size for these craft. In Orcathink, that length would be equivalent to a middle to large size orca (especially if viewing just the hull form from below). Sailing alone might be interpreted as a rogue male, maybe outcast or troublemaker.

Orcas are know to be territorial, so ramming attacks might be a screening group (of juveniles?) from a local pod thinking that it is dealing with an intruder. The article was a unclear about the number of rams that occurred in the typical incident before the orcas broke off their attack. Maybe the damaged boat heaving-to was interpreted by the orcas as a successful defense.

That’s why the repeated ramming (especially the one for an hour) is the curious part. Orca are considered very intelligent, so you would expect that they would figure out fairly quickly that the “intruding” sailboat was not a danger to their pod.

We will never know for certain, but it would be funny if this really did turn out to be a series of encounters between transiting sailboats and stubborn juvenile orcas (males, of course) determined to prove how tough they are.

“Hey! Didn’t you hear our whistles! Get outta here.”

“Oh, tough guy! Think you can just ignore us and sail through our territory, eh?”

“I’ll show you!”

“Ouch! What the...”

“Don’t let him get the better of you! Ram him again!”

“Stand back! Let me show you how to ram something!” etc.

(Over at the nearby group of adult orcas...)

“He’s going to hurt himself. We should stop it.”

“They all big and tough now and think they’ve got this orca adult thing figured out. Nope; they gotta grow up sometime.”

“I seem to recall...”

“No! That was completely different! Let’s go find some fish. I’m hungry.”


89 posted on 09/19/2020 8:52:54 AM PDT by Captain Rhino (When the enemy is making a major strategic blunder, DO NOT interrupt him.e)
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To: Travis McGee

You should look at attaching that prop to a genset while underway.

Lots of ‘free amps’ for little drag...


90 posted on 09/19/2020 9:00:42 AM PDT by ASOC (Having humility really means one is rarely humiliated)
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To: Ruy Dias de Bivar

I read the book long, long, long ago. About 55 year ago I think. Enjoyed it too.


91 posted on 09/19/2020 9:00:55 AM PDT by SmokingJoe
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To: Rebelbase
....and no one knows why

Recruited by Antifa/BLM?

92 posted on 09/19/2020 9:02:42 AM PDT by TruthWillWin
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To: Bulwyf

:0) They ocean is partly our friend. As for the brain comment, the presence in the democommie ranks are few and far between. Loads of emotion though.


93 posted on 09/19/2020 9:05:50 AM PDT by rktman ( #My2ndAmend! ----- Enlisted in the Navy in '67 to protect folks rights to strip my rights. WTH?)
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To: Tallguy

not from michigan;^)


94 posted on 09/19/2020 9:10:26 AM PDT by exnavy (american by birth and choice, I love this country!)
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To: Rebelbase

I saw a documentary that included Killer Whales.

It showed a female with her calf near a beach in South America.

There were Elephant Seals on the beach.

Two of the male Elephant Seals started fighting.

You could see the Orca swimming back and forth in front of the beach and she would raise one eye out of the water to watch the Elephant Seals fight.

All of a sudden, like a black and white torpedo, she streaked towards the beach.

She was on the beach and grabbed one of the Elephant Seals.

She used her flippers to back herself off the beach while holding that Elephant Seal in her mouth. Elephant Seals are huge.

She swam out to her calf and let her calf kill the seal.

Amazing.

I would never get into the water if an Orca was anywhere near by.

The Transient Pods are really scary.


95 posted on 09/19/2020 9:22:58 AM PDT by blueunicorn6 ("A crack shot and a good dancer”)
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To: Rebelbase

My wife and I went to an aquarium at Victoria, BC about 1991.

We were the first people there.

My wife went to the gift store so I headed over to the Killer Whale exhibit.

It was in a depression all by itself.

I was the only person there.

I walked up to the pool. It had a small fence around it like you see surrounding gardens.

I started walking around the edge of the pool, looking for a Killer Whale.

I had a feeling like someone was watching me.

I turned around and there was a Killer Whale right next to me.

He had been stalking me.

There was no one nearby and that was just a little fence between us.

I said, “Nice Killer Whale. Hope you’ve had your breakfast.”

Then, I turned and ran up the bleachers remembering the footage of that Killer Whale grabbing an Elephant Seal on the beach.

Turns out the Whale was named Tillacum and he killed a few people.

They had to shut down the aquarium because he killed someone.

They shipped him to Sea World Orlando and he killed a trainer in front of a bunch of families.

He is featured in some documentary.

I watched that big boy jump, and he could have had me as his main course.

He got to be huge.

They call them Killer Whales for a reason.


96 posted on 09/19/2020 9:40:22 AM PDT by blueunicorn6 ("A crack shot and a good dancer”)
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To: Rebelbase

Black Lives Matter!!

(Like Obama, they’re only partly black.)

Mark


97 posted on 09/19/2020 10:39:24 AM PDT by MarkL (Do I really look like a guy with a plan?)
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To: ASOC

I considered some kind of belted-in friction clutch deal, but the space if very limited and it would severly limit engine room access. But I’ve seen some great setups that do that. My Hurth gearbox recommends putting it in forward to lock the prop as doing less damage than freewheeling.


98 posted on 09/19/2020 10:59:45 AM PDT by Travis McGee (EnemiesForeignAndDomestic.com)
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To: MarkL

Yes they are. They can identify as white or black whales depending on the ocean’s political climate.


99 posted on 09/19/2020 12:58:06 PM PDT by Rebelbase
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