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 ...
A couple M-80s or cherry bombs would really hurt their ears.
Hey, if a cherry bomb can wreck a toilet...
What’s kind of interesting about this is they’ve already learned how to disable the boat. They seem to attack the rudder first. What if they’re now evaluating the responses to that? They disable the boat and then they notice after a while that another boat soon shows up? What’s their end game?
Sounds like an opportunity event to me; just playing around, and there was no negative blowback as far as they are concerned. So, “that was fun; let's do it again!”
I'm thinking that a flash-bang over the side would have the desired effect with out hurting them.
But Europeans are not to smart.
Boats are like floating Chinese take-out containers.
The whales figured out there’s tasty stuff inside...
LOL there is always a Bert Gomer on these FR threads. So what should it be Bert? Maximum pentation or belt fed fully automatic?
I'm just messing with you. I love FR.
Orcas are the d*cks of the sea - they turn great white sharks on their sides and eat their livers, they dive into the mouths of blue whales and tear out their tongues, they harass and kill dolphins for fun. It was just a matter of time before they started messing with us.
Ha ha ha. Orcas are not whales.
Are orcas teaching each other to sink boats?
Traumatized’ Orca May Have Taught Other Whales to Sink Boats
After a number of instances in which orcas appeared to purposefully sink sailboats in Europe, some researchers are theorizing that the killer whales may have taught each other to do so in the aftermath of a prior traumatic incident. But the reason why remains up for debate.May 25, 2023
It was the closest I could find. 😏 It’s just humor.
If a person walked into a pride of wild lions and was eaten, would it be the fault of the lions or the persons fault? Demonstrably Orcas are highly intelligent and were more than likely protecting their themselves from the threat of humans. If in fact that is the case, who can blame them for sinking a few boats. They do not deserve any retaliation from humans.
Dunno. I’d bet I do fine with an AR-10.
They’re surfacing right next to the boat. Just shoot it 10 times.
Shoot at the one right next to the boat, while another comes up under the boat capsizing it - opps! you’re fish food.
Or just sit there and be fish food
Could also be! I am a great believer in animal intelligence. Many species show amazing abilities. Except for apes, they just don’t have opposable thumbs!
Yes, yes, clearly Trump's fault for causing climate change, and thus destroying mama gaia ....
Some fishermen in the Monterey Bay region are using essentially a waterproof concussion explosive called a seal bomb to scare away seals and other small sea mammals from their fish catches. I believe that some sailors around Gibraltar are starting to carry M-80 and M-100 waterproof bombs that create a underwater concussive blast to scare away orcas.
And they just might. 😄
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