Orcas sink yacht

Revenge of the whales?

https://boattest.com/article/terrif...Hew&utm_content=234137261&utm_source=hs_email

Researchers believe that the attacks are being carried out by just a few young male orcas and could simply be another temporary cultural fad. Other examples of temporary cultural fads in teenage orcas include playing with prawn and crab traps and wearing dead fish on their heads as hats.

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A FAD you say.

Nick14 said:

Revenge of the whales?

https://boattest.com/article/terrif...Hew&utm_content=234137261&utm_source=hs_email

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This is not the first time I hear this. My neighbor in the marina in Corfu (Greece) told me the same story. He is a captain on a 60' catamaran and both his rudders were taken off by orca's close to Gibraltar Strait.
He managed to bring the boat into port and new rudders had to be installed. According to him it happens a lot in that area.

Mambo42 said:

This is not the first time I hear this. My neighbor in the marina in Corfu (Greece) told me the same story. He is a captain on a 60' catamaran and both his rudders were taken off by orca's close to Gibraltar Strait.
He managed to bring the boat into port and new rudders had to be installed. According to him it happens a lot in that area.

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I used to live in the UK where close to my village there was a town called Coggeshall, a group of teenagers in the town called themselves the Coggeshall basta**ds and harried motorists and pedestrians on their motorcycles.

This is typical teenage behavior from an evolved species. Their Moms would be horrified!

Just another good reason to boat on the Great Lakes…

They only attack sailboats. Hmmmmmm...I wonder....

I was wondering about this as well. Do the sailboats look/mimic a whale and they are practicing their techniques?

AlanT said:

This is typical teenage behavior from an evolved species. Their Moms would be horrified!

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This made me laugh at first, but then I thought about it more. Anthropomorphism or not, it might be the best explanation yet!

Greetings,

Comodave said:

Just another good reason to boat on the Great Lakes…

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Or the Missouri River...

kthoennes said:

Or the Missouri River...

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Is there much left of it now? I read that the Mississippi is pretty low.

RT Firefly said:

Greetings,

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Don't Panic!

Tator

Comodave said:

Is there much left of it now? I read that the Mississippi is pretty low.

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I was thinking the same. I read the other day that the Army Corp of Engineers is doing some type of "emergency" or in government terms "expansive" dredging to keep boat traffic flowing.

Also, like where is the water going???

Kapodisn said:

I was thinking the same. I read the other day that the Army Corp of Engineers is doing some type of "emergency" or in government terms "expansive" dredging to keep boat traffic flowing.

Also, like where is the water going???

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The long-term drought reduces the water volume feeding into the river thus
reducing that level.

Mac2 said:

They only attack sailboats. Hmmmmmm...I wonder....

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I think they munched a trawler or two IIRC so don't feel so safe.

No, we're generally still okay, just about the entire course, although the basin or surrounding area has some badly dry areas. I'm kind of surprised though, especially since the Lewis & Clark water project sucks about 24 million gallons per day out of the river.

https://riverweather.com/riverstages/missouri/

But the forecast and surrounding area is not looking good:

https://www.mitchellrepublic.com/news/regional-drought-continues-to-impact-missouri-river-dams

Of course we're just above the first dam so our water level is artificially maintained anyway, and our compound (Gavins Pt, Lewis & Clark) is actually up, but the river level is generally "normal" all the way to Kansas City. I believe it's the Mississippi where barges are running aground.

When I was on a Uchuck trip in Nootka Sound, I watched Luna nearly rip the rudder off of an old Grampian or Columbia live aboard sailboat (I just remember it was butt ugly) tied up at a logging camp. It liked to spin the spade rudder around until the tiller was whacking the backstay.

Hey NS. Good to see you. As in I like you’re new avatar.
My trip to Powell River didn’t do as good …. Thanks.

While I can see the teenage high jinx being a reasonable theory, but perhaps it could be as simple as mistaken identity.

An adult male humpback is about 55’ and a female, 60’.
A 40’ sail boat could be misjudged as a sub adult humpback on its side; the deep keel resembling a pectoral fin and the rudder mimicking the tail, swinging back and forth.

When killer whales attack larger whales, they often go for the tail to immobilize it. This picture is a perfect example; Mexican humpback Valiant which is known to have been attacked by killer whales as a juvenile. There are others.

As an adult, Valiant is known to be aggressive with killer whales and has been seen to protect seals and sea lions from these hungry predators.

Northern Spy said:

When I was on a Uchuck trip in Nootka Sound, I watched Luna nearly rip the rudder off of an old Grampian or Columbia live aboard sailboat (I just remember it was butt ugly) tied up at a logging camp. It liked to spin the spade rudder around until the tiller was whacking the backstay.

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Columbia 26 for sure. Grampian rudder wouldn't spin around like that on the Columbia (My Dad had one that he bought new when the Clark Simpkins car dealership on Kingsway was selling them) I used to go out on it and remember spinning the rudder around. I agree butt ugly. No inside sleeping for anyone 6' or over, so I would put the companionway boards across the cockpit to make an almost double size bed. Sailed well though.

https://youtu.be/0fv8ueisI78

Found this video of an Orca trying to steal a sail boat.... I mean.... Motor yacht for life for me hahaha

Researchers believe that the attacks are being carried out by just a few young male orcas and could simply be another temporary cultural fad. Other examples of temporary cultural fads in teenage orcas include playing with prawn and crab traps and wearing dead fish on their heads as hats.


Ennui aka bizarre behavior at the end of civilization.

Flash-bang grenades anybody?

rgano said:

Flash-bang grenades anybody?

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Do you think that would work or just piss them off even more??

I honestly am trying to think of ways to protect myself and my vessel (I mean a motor yacht has yet to be attacked) but other than not being in a sailboat, and powering down. I think you are pretty much in it for the ride.

Kapodisn said:

Do you think that would work or just piss them off even more??

I honestly am trying to think of ways to protect myself and my vessel (I mean a motor yacht has yet to be attacked) but other than not being in a sailboat, and powering down. I think you are pretty much in it for the ride.

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Consider that their hearing is a vastly more complex and larger system than ours and that sound travels five times as fast in water as air, you betcha an underwater explosion would run any whale off. There used to be a legal firework called a cherry bomb which had a fuse that would continue burning underwater to produce and explosion. Something on that order, much less than the force of a non-lethal grenade would probably work. Maybe you could use an underwater speaker with loud noises played over it. whatever the repellent agent is, acoustics is the mechanism to employ.

This is something that I keep an eye on. Hopefully, it will start trending toward fewer annual incidents soon!
In 2-3 years, we will return from the Med to Sweden and one route we were considering was to cut through France on Canal du Midi (red line in picture below) and then follow the French coast northward. This situation gives us pause. We really wanted to try this route, in part, to avoid extensive up-stream distances on the Rhone and to avoid ~300+ locks.

The picture shows areas where there have been Orca/Yacht encounters over the last few years. It comes from an interesting article here:
https://blog.navily.com/en/blog/orc...ewsletter November 2022 EN&utm_medium=email

rgano said:

Maybe you could use an underwater speaker with loud noises played over it. whatever the repellent agent is, acoustics is the mechanism to employ.

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Different ecotypes have different sound tolerances.
Locally a fish farm introduced a 198dB underwater noise to deter seals. The noise caused extreme pain in the seals ears so they chose to not hang around. An unintended victim was a pod of resident killer whales, which for fifteen years avoided their forever winter foraging area. Nearly five years after the farm was moved, this pod ventured back into the area.

Conversely, during the Aleutian Isle recovery near San Juan Island, several different sound devices were used in an attempt to keep transient killer whales away from the leaking fuel oil. None of them worked.

Sometimes whales just have an itch. We were sailing with engine off in Mass Bay near race point when a whale kept on trying to approach us. Thing was larger than the boat. Couldn’t identify what type but believe some type of baleen whale given the size. We banged pots, turned on the engine, used the horn and constantly tried to alter course so that the stern would face it. It persisted in coming along side and just fairly gently rub against us. That gentle was enough to move the boat (a B40) sideways. Scared the crap out of us. Went on for a good 1/2 h then just left. Can’t imagine this to have been a juvenile being all of 50’ or more. Behavior didn’t seem aggressive. Thought it was trying to scratch the same spot over an over again as it was that spot that always contacted the boat.

When you consider that there are a bazillion yacht miles traveled each year and it has only happened 3 times, this is not something that should be on your top 100 things to worry about list. It would be like a shark attack or a lightning strike. It's always a possibility but statistically so unlikely it is not worth altering your behavior.

Benthic2 said:

When you consider that there are a bazillion yacht miles traveled each year and it has only happened 3 times, this is not something that should be on your top 100 things to worry about list. It would be like a shark attack or a lightning strike. It's always a possibility but statistically so unlikely it is not worth altering your behavior.

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It's happened far, far, far more than 3 times. The photo was just representative of the general area. The link explains more if you dive down to the monthly incidents.



Or use this shortcut and scroll (zoom out) month-by-month.

https://www.orcaiberica.org/last-interactions