Posted on 08/02/2024 12:00:50 PM PDT by Red Badger
Ayacht navigating the Strait of Gibraltar recently sank after a pod of orcas launched a dramatic attack, marking the latest incident in a series of troubling encounters with these killer whales.
Robert Powell, the British yachtsman affected, said that "these (orcas) were not playing" and described the attack as "well-organized and coordinated" in a social media post.
Powell and two other occupants of the yacht, called Bonhomie William, had to be rescued by Spanish coastguards on Wednesday 24 after orcas disabled the vessel's steering and subjected it to severe buffeting.
However, Volker Deecke, a professor of wildlife conservation at the University of Cumbria, told Newsweek that there is "no evidence whatsoever" indicating that this behavior is aggressive or that orcas are deliberately trying to sink boats they encounter.
A spokesperson for the Spanish Coastguard Service said in a statement: "Yesterday evening a yacht called Bonhomme William which was two miles off Camarinal Cape between Tarifa and Barbate reported that after interaction with orcas she needed to be towed as her steering system was inoperative."
Powell and his two crew members first reached out to Spanish authorities for a tow after the initial orca attack disabled their rudder. Spanish officials began preparing the rescue boat Salvamar Enif, but Bonhomme William's crew later reported that the orcas had returned and the vessel was taking on water.
(Excerpt) Read more at newsweek.com ...
Nothing to see here, move along!
.308
The boaters might want to transmit submarine audio between 0.5 to 25 kHz to disrupt their echolocation. That might keep them away.
We live on a sailboat, and, I currently moderate a Facebook group with 200,000+ members worldwide. This is a regular topic (too regular in my opinion, but, what can ya do).
The main consensus is that people are running their depth finders out in the middle of the ocean and the ultra sonics are/were disturbing them. But, now it’s becoming more of a learned behavior.
Personally, if it were us, they might end up getting a lot of doses of ‘leadacilin’, but, then again, there isn’t any point in running a depth finder out in 1000 ft deep water, so, they probably won’t be looking for us anyway.
Would it? Orca weigh 13,000 pounds, as much as the largest elephants ever. And I have to believe that being in the water might help them to deal with gunshot wounds even better than a land animal.
Add in the fact that few of your shots would be effective, as the orca are attacking the underside of your boat, so they don't need to surface for air while they are within range. The few times that you do spot them, refraction will also affect your aim. and their vital organs are better protected than a land animal would be.
For legal elephant hunts, against the ones that are only 6000 lbs, 375 is the minimum caliber that may legally be used, Calibers of . 450 and above are recommended. (The webpage I found also says "Only solid bullets should be used for elephant hunting!"
I'm thinking that you'd lose that fight, if all you have is a 308... and the orca will likely be operating in a pack, which increases your problem by an order of magnitude.
I think it would hurt like hell and they’d go elsewhere and die.
Set some indigenous types out to hunt them down.
There are Orcas in the water near Seattle. I lived on an offshore island, took the ferry to town now and then. Whenever Orcas were sighted, the pilot slowed down considerably so they didn’t get hurt. We all rushed to the railing in hopes of seeing them. Almost everyone liked Orcas. Except one old grouch I knew.
Older killer whale (in aquatic Foghorn Leghorn voice) “Now son,lemme show you how it’s done heeya. FIRST, we sink the boat, then those land varmints end up in the water, but we don’t eat then right away ya see. Ya gotta, Ah say ya gotta swim around ‘em some first”
Younger killer whale: “why’s that Papa?”
Older killer whale: “Ya wanna scare, I say frighten, the inside stuff...the ugly stuff that is, out first. They taste better that way”
Every sailing yacht should have a bangstick.
Every sailing yacht should have a bangstick.
I l like most orcas.
The homicidal, cocaine orcas, no.
Really. A .308 would work fine.
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If you were on land, but not so much when you are at sea being tossed around like a cork.
From the article: the big domes have no clue what’s going on.
“There have been theories raised by scientists, including biologist Alfredo López Fernández from the University of Santiago, that this behavior toward boats may stem from a traumatic event that changed one orca’s behavior, which others have imitated. Fernández suggests that an orca injured by a vessel may have prompted its family to take revenge.
“Hence, we try and avoid the word attack. There is no evidence for things like revenge or negative interpretations. Our best guess is that this is some sort of play activity and it tends to be the more juvenile animals that exhibit this behavior.”
The crunchy exterior has a chewy nugget inside.
Global warming, DUH!
Send the perfesser out on a boat for a couple of weeks.
Its Orca rough housing. Orcas just want to have fun. 😉
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