How best to handle strange behavior?

You might run over a manatee if they have any in your area but you definitely will not run over a dolphin, unless of course, it is retarded.
They love to play with boats and humans. Here are some shots i tool a while back from a 135' crew boat at above 20 kts.

The dark blue water pic was a dolphin playing in the stern wake which is kinda rare. Most like to surf and play in the bow wake. The first photo is of them playing and jumping in the bow wake.
Generally, the bigger the wake, the more likely you are to attract dolphins especially if you are playing Billy Joel or Judy Collins. BTW, they do not like hard rock. I never tried rap because i never have any on board.

you definitely will not run over a dolphin, unless of course, it is retarded.

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I was recently told on another boating forum that the use of one my favorite words - 'retarded' - was no longer socially exceptable.
But then, I wasn't referring to dolphins.

Anode said:

........'retarded' - was no longer socially exceptable.
But then, I wasn't referring to dolphins.

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Actually, you are correct - unfortunately.
Let me relate a story from about 15 years ago when I use to date a psychologist. And No!!!, I wasn't part of her thesis. . I think. LOL

Anyway, the relatively new term is 'developmentally delayed". She was speaking to a mother whose child was developmentally delayed and trying to explain her situation to her as a mother. The childs mother has been to many PHD's and MD's and was at her witts end. Then my old GF used the term 'retarded' and the woman broke down into tears. She said "I knew it, I just knew it". The problem was that she was famimiar with the term 'retarded' and no one ever used it. When her child was repeatedly diagnosed as 'developmentally delayed' she was confused as the when the child would 'catch up' since the child was 'delayed'. In the quest to soften up the language, they inadvertantly softened up the impact and seriousness of the situation. She kept thanking my old GF for being up-front with her. She now understood the situation for the first time. Anyway, that is what happened.
I often use the word retarded inappropriately for society but correctly for some people I have to deal with every day. Kick my ass if you want because I will still use that term as a derogatory term for supposedly normal people that are just 'retarded'.

Man !!!!!
Talk about straying off the original topic. Sheesch!!!

If I am close enough to see a face I use the P.A.

Let's me say what I want without the VHF police comming down on me.

I am not ashamed to say what I feel to idiots.

Horn broken watch for middle finger.

SD

jeffnick said:

One More Time Around: The Blame - Our Most Generous Moment

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Thanks for the link. I enjoyed it.
Makes too much sense though. :lol:
Regards

Tony B

yep...playful and just about unhittable...

I am with psneeld on this (the forum profiles no longer include the person's name--- or I can't find it--- so I appologize for using your avatar name instead).

There have been times when we have been followed to and through the entrance to our marina or through a narrow channel in the islands by a commercial fishboat a boat length or less behind us. This has never bothered us because I'm not going to be slamming on brakes and coming to an almost instant stop. And if I do need to stop quickly, "quickly" will not be the operative word. And there is always room for the following boat to dodge a bit to port or starboard to avoid hitting us if it should come to that. No channels or passes that we've been in are exactly twelve feet wide.

As to stopping for dolphins, well, we have done that but not because we thought we might hit them but because we wanted to watch them. One thing we do is if we see a pod of Orcas heading directly our way we stop the boat, turn off the engines (or OB if we're in the Arima) and the depth sounder and drift until they pass us. Often when we do this they come right up to the boat and check us out. We've also done this in SE Alaska with the Beaver. See a pod of Orcas going somewhere, fly out about a mile ahead of them and land, shut down and drift as they go by. We've had them come right up to the plane to look at us. One time we had a big male come up beside the float we were standing on and the top of his dorsal fin cleared the underside of the wing by only a foot or so. That's impressive.

We've had schools of Pacific white-sided dolphins come play around our Arima when we're trolling for salmon up the north end of Vancouver Island. I have sometimes worried about them accidentally brushing against the prop of the trollng motor but even though they are right next to the boat they stay away from the stern. So I think they're pretty aware of what's going on around them. Big whales do get hit by props sometimes but I don't know why that is. None of the big whales we've been around in the Arima or GB--- minke, humpback, and gray--- have ever gotten very close to us except once in Bellingham Bay. On that occasion we were surrounded by four or five bubble feeding gray whales so we shut the engines down on the GB, turned off the depth sounder, and just drifted while they fed all around us. That was impressive, too, to have something larger than the boat gliding under you.

I have a book on the SC bottlenosed dolphins and in the book are photos of dolphins that have been hit by boats and boat props. If I see one in front of the boat, I will stop or at least reduce the engine speed to idle and shift into neutral.

As for following closely, not all boaters are paying 100% attention to what they are doing. A boat may even be on auto pilot. It would bother me having someone just one or two boat lengths behind me. Most likely, I would slow to an eventual stop and force the other boat to pass or explain his/her actions.

rwidman said:

I have a book on the SC bottlenosed dolphins and in the book are photos of dolphins that have been hit by boats and boat props. If I see one in front of the boat, I will stop or at least reduce the engine speed to idle and shift into neutral.

As for following closely, not all boaters are paying 100% attention to what they are doing. A boat may even be on auto pilot. It would bother me having someone just one or two boat lengths behind me. Most likely, I would slow to an eventual stop and force the other boat to pass or explain his/her actions.

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A dolphin hit by a trawler that just went through a bridge...yeah...more likely hit by a meteor. I'm gonna guess that boats that hit dolphins are probably travelling well in excess of 25 maybe even 35 knots... or the dolphin was NOT healthy, etc...etc...

May...possibly...might..."not all boaters are paying 100% attention "..."A boat may even be on auto pilot." Right after coming through the bridge and about to pass someone??? I think not...

This is such an interesting thread. Reminds me of several things, but I'll stick to a boating related one:

So we were on about an eight hour cruise last year and about half way into we had to make a right turn off the main river into a slough. you can keep going up the river to end up in the same place but nobody goes that way. We were just about to start our turn when what looked to be easily a million dollar "motor yacht" with a burgee from the most exclusive YC in the area blew by us, between our boat and the channel marker for the slough, and continued on straight--the way nobody goes. He was MAYBE two boat lengths away and gave us a huge wake that we barely had room and time to turn into as it was so close. He was up on his flybridge and gave us a friendly wave as I laid myself over the table down below to keep my laptop and the papers I was working with from flying everywhere. We always lay our TV on the bed so that wasn't an issue. We've also added latches to keep the cupboards from popping open (anymore) so it wasn't TOO big of a disaster down below. Glad I was sitting down when it happened. Once the rocking subsided and we were headed down the slough, I went up on the flybridge to check on Matt. He was fine, just the throwable PFDs, binoculars, whatever was loose up there got tossed around.

And here comes the a-hole right behind us again?? He'd seen us turn and realized he'd blown by the slough. Except now we are both behind a huge freighter being pushed by two tow boats. And this is a fairly narrow channel. Well our fellow boater didn't have time for THAT nonsense so he passed us again (we were both going much more slowly this time, thankfully) and went up to the rear tug and sent his wife out to talk to the tug operators. He then turned his boat around and went around the freighter on the opposite side so we followed him around. He soon sped up again and lost us in his wake.

I guess it is a good thing he was there to show us how it is done or we would have wasted a good five or ten minutes out of our eight hour trip watching the tugs maneuvering that freighter into port.

I have no doubt he was COMPLETELY oblivious to how much wake he was throwing out, just as he was to where he was and that he needed to turn! I try to keep my mellow mood despite the idiots. :lol: All it takes is some money and anyone can buy a boat and join an exclusive YC.

psneeld said:

A dolphin hit by a trawler that just went through a bridge...yeah...more likely hit by a meteor. I'm gonna guess that boats that hit dolphins are probably travelling well in excess of 25 maybe even 35 knots... or the dolphin was NOT healthy, etc...etc...

May...possibly...might..."not all boaters are paying 100% attention "..."A boat may even be on auto pilot." Right after coming through the bridge and about to pass someone??? I think not...

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Whatever.

Jennifer, the million-dollar yacht couple are seem to be used to always getting their way. ... I would have been tempted to write a letter to their commodore asking if that behavior was acceptable with their club.

Rwidman, that photo is sickening.

That's very sad. Do you know how it happened?

A web search on different variations of "dolphin injured" and "boat" will return sad stories and warnings. Apparently, there are more "retarded" dolphins out there than some forum members are aware of.

markpierce said:

Rwidman, that photo is sickening.

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Yes it is. I thought a while about reposting it, but some folks can't believe anything they don't see with their own eyes.

rwidman said:

A web search on different variations of "dolphin injured" and "boat" will return sad stories and warnings. Apparently, there are more "retarded" dolphins out there than some forum members are aware of.

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Not really...some members think a 7-8 knot boat is capable of taking down the average dolphin...all I can say to that is THAT member has NOT spent much time around marine mammals on the water or just doesn't get it ...and yes I have searched the internet...most of the "reports" come from the news or an animal rights group.

And for those that always think the "rich" are the ignorant "ahol*s"...belive me there's plenty of older trawlers plying the intracoastal that wake the crap out of others too...

rwidman said:

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Having seen hundreds of marine mammal and human propellor strikes...that may or may not be one...single deep slice on a small mammal...just doesn't fit what I have seen in all my comings and goings assisting marine mammal centers during my time in the USCG.

That would have had to occur on an animal almost incapable of moving itself.

And nice sympathy "shock" post...hitting adolphin with a trawler...I'd bet a thou right now that you couldn't do it if you tried...it would be in bad taste... but would prove my point.

One advantage "the rich" have over Joe Bayliner or Sally Searay is that they can often afford to, and not infrequently do, hire someone who's not an arrogant ******* to run their boats for them even if they might be one.

With the 99-percenters you have to put up with their ignorance and lack of book-larnin' directly.

psneeld said:

Having seen hundreds of marine mammal and human propellor strikes...that may or may not be one...single deep slice on a small mammal...just doesn't fit what I have seen in all my comings and goings assisting marine mammal centers during my time in the USCG.....

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I have to agree. That slice looks way too clean to be from a boat prop.
A spinning prop would leave multiple cuts and bruises, at least from everything I have seen.

Not saying it is or isn't, nor am I implying by saying this that there is no need to be careful around the other creatures that share our world.

But I work in a world where computer generated imagery has been raised to a totally convincing art and I have learned to be skeptical of just about any kind of image these days. In showing the photo this evening to a couple of our CGI guys, they said that could very easily be a computer generated image. From a computer graphics point of view they said it would be dirt simple. In fact one of them said that it's not even very good CGI because in that environment a cut would not be that clean and neat. There would be blood and tissue and "stuff" messing up that nice clean slice, particularly in the water.

So..... not saying it is CGI and not saying it's not. And if it is real it's sad to see another life being ended this way. But it would be very easy to create this same shot with digital graphics given the same original photo or photo elements.

Marin said:

So..... not saying it is CGI and not saying it's not. And if it is real it's sad to see another life being ended this way. But it would be very easy to create this same shot with digital graphics given the same original photo or photo elements.

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My son is a student learning 3D Computer Graphics and took a quick peek at the image just now and agrees completely with Marin's CGI guys. He said it wouldn't be that hard to replicate.

By right clicking on that photo and clicking 'view image info', (on my Mac computer, in Firefox) this is what comes up http://images.onset.freedom.com/spbreeze/gallery/koq6t8-dolphin2.jpg

Following that address shows you that photo. The company freedom.com is a media holding company.
That's all I could find out.

Thanks for what I would consider support to my theory about a prop strike in that photo...certainly prop strikes occur, but I doubt from boats travelling at 10 knots or less...

....but that's NOT what I'm really trying to relate all the way back to the OPs post.

That it SURE wasn't a trawler stike....thus avoiding dolphins with a trawler is NOT necessary (manatees more caution)....so sudden stops after transiting a bridge area are either forecast and YOU call is paramount or rare, thus being followed closely in some situations is a norm rather than something to get in a huff about.

How about some happier marine mammal pictures?

A week ago we took our trawler out to see if we could find a pod of transient Orca that were reported to be heading our way. About an hour out we found them, and cruised along with the pod for about an hour. We had no problem staying outside the minimum distance (200 yards), except once when the pod surfaced just about 50 yards in front of the boat. We shut down and drifted for a few minutes until the pod safely moved on.

We have owned boats in Puget Sound for well over a decade now, and this is only the 2nd time we've seen Orca. The trawler appears to be much more marine animal friendly -- Orca, Dall's porpoises, seals, and sealions are all less apt to disappear in the presence of this boat than the 28' Bayliner, even though we generally cruised the Bayliner at slower speeds (~5 kts vs ~7).

We didn't have our good camera with us, so these are mostly cell-phone shots.

Probably the coolest experience we have had to date on the water was back in the 90s when we were fishing off Possession Point in Puget Sound. We were headed back to Everett when we suddenly realized there were Orcas (which are technically really big dolphins) all over the place. We learned later that this was a rare joining of J and K pods, the two pods that frequent the Sound during the summer. We slowed to an idle and turned off the depth sounder. For perhaps a half hour we were surrounded by them. They came up next to the boat, they passed just feet in front of the bow, they did half-rolls on the surface to look at us. One big male did a "spy hop" right next to the boat--- they come vertically about a quarter of the way out of the water and stay there for a few moments looking at you. They were so close we could see the little porpoises that sometime accompany them swimming beside their heads like pilot fish. It was a truly amazing experience.

And it wasn't just around us. There were Orcas all over the place, all heading slowly north, between Whidbey Island and Mukilteo on the mainland.

A lot of other smaller fishing boats saw this and stopped and watched, and some of them got the same treatment we did, with Orcas surrounding their boats.

During this time several big cruisers plowed through the channel on their way back to Everett. Big Baylinery\Tollycrafty sort of things, pushing half the Sound around. Their skippers sat up on their flying bridges, staring straight ahead, totally oblivious to what was going on in the water around them. A few people in the smaller boats shouted and pointed, not to warn them about the Orcas but to tell them about them so they could watch them, too, but they looked neither right or left and just kept plowing their furrows for Everett.

We've had small pods of transient Orcas--- the ones that eat seals instead of salmon--- come right past our drifting boat in Knight Inlet when we were halibut fishing up the north end of Vancouver Island. That's cool, but it's nothing compared to that day when we were in the middle of J and K pods.

Real or PS? Hard to tell these days.