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Whale impaled on cruise ship (no pictures)

I've seen this happen before up in Juneau, AK. Cruise ship pulled into port on a nice busy day, with a whale skewered on the bulbous bow. I think it happens a few times every year up in alaska, and in the N.E.

There was a friend of mine who worked on a whale watching boat out of somewhere in Mass. To make a long story short, as they were coming back in from a whale watch, they ran over a whale. Whale gut's everywhere. To make it worse, they ruined both props, so were dead in the water, with pieces of whale carcass around the boat. :eek:

I know some other people who hit a whale in their sail boat in the gulf of Maine, they didnt see it, as it was night time, and dont know if they killed it or not.

The problem is that whales are too slow. They can hear the ships coming, but can't get out of the way.
 
Spizzo said:
The problem is that whales are too slow. They can hear the ships coming, but can't get out of the way.
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There should be new laws to cover this. Whales should be told straight that swimming slowly round the world oceans will not be tolerated. Who do they think they are?
 
Interesting idea - but I don't know how quickly a 100,000 ton cruise ship could react to seeing something on sonar.
 
Spizzo said:
The problem is that whales are too slow. They can hear the ships coming, but can't get out of the way.
Click to expand...

That's a problem? I hate whales!

pave500.jpg
 
many of the whale populations are decreasing. And I would think what ever steps that can be taken cost effectively, should be done. Whale watching vessels are more nimble. Yet in either case the ships pander to those that want to see the whales, without concern of the safety of the whales. Only the passengers.

It is time for us in the US to look at things like the Native Americans (Indians). We are all part of nature and need to preserve what we can.
 
slughead said:
That's a problem? I hate whales!
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Yeah, I could see why. They're such planetary leeches, sucking the life out of our oceans and depleting our resources.

Oh, wait, that's not the whales doing that...
 
virividox said:
i wonder if maybe boats should be fitted with sonar or a way to detect biologics so they dont collide
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Yeah, except sonar messes with sea life more than it would help save a few whales. I know it really screws up dolphins, cause they also use their own sonar. I think a while back, the navy was testing their sonar, somewhere, and a bunch of dolphins ended up on the beach.
 
Save the trees, nuke the whales! Just kidding. I'm not sure how they would avoid this happening in the future. Having some kind of whale TCAS (for those not familiar with aeronautics, TCAS is a collision avoidance measure implemented on passenger and private aircraft) might work. Either that or equipping whales with remote controlled underwater JATO bottles. Yeah.
 
That is very sad, but accidents happen. The coloring of the whale makes me think that it had been dead for a while.
 
slughead said:
That's a problem? I hate whales!

pave500.jpg
Click to expand...

In reading this perverse comment, I'm guessing that the true object of your hatred is "self-rightous" environmentalists rather than whales. Unfortunately for you, diversity of life forms and of opinion are both essential for the survival and good health of our biological and intellectual ecosystems.
 
floatingspirit said:
In reading this perverse comment, I'm guessing that the true object of your hatred is "self-rightous" environmentalists rather than whales. Unfortunately for you, diversity of life forms and of opinion are both essential for the survival and good health of our biological and intellectual ecosystems.
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You got to admit though, it's pretty funny to see a Suburban with a Greenpeace Sticker on it.
 
floatingspirit said:
In reading this perverse comment, I'm guessing that the true object of your hatred is "self-rightous" environmentalists rather than whales. Unfortunately for you, diversity of life forms and of opinion are both essential for the survival and good health of our biological and intellectual ecosystems.
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Sweet, but I have nothing against environmentalists (aside from the ones who don't bathe).

I just really hate whales.
 
question fear said:
has anyone else read fluke by chris moore?
i keep thinking of those whaley boys and their ships....
maybe this was a decoy so we wouldnt find them ;)
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Great book, perverse but interesting. Maybe the pilots were too busy grinning and fooling around so they couldn't out of the way.
 
Kaboom!

I have a neighbor who was on a destroyer in WWII. One day they caught something on radar that zigzagged in the same pattern as a u-boat, so they continued to follow it and it regularly would turn. So he said they began to drop depth charges at it. Soon, a large pile of blubber flew up in the air. I wouldn't want to be on that deck :eek:)
 
The problem is that whales are too slow. They can hear the ships coming, but can't get out of the way.
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Whales aren't slow. I've been on a lot of whale watches and they can move very fast when they want to. I suspect this was just bad judgement on the whale's part - it probably didn't realize the threat and so it didn't react in time. Or it may have been ill.

Legislation is not the solution. It is just a knee jerk reaction.
 
Chip NoVaMac said:
It is time for us in the US to look at things like the Native Americans (Indians).
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Oh, right. Gee, just like the people who drove species to extinction by slaughtering them over cliffs. Right...

By the way, I'm part Indian too (Native American to the politically correct and sactimonious) but I'm also realistic and know my history. The Indians did (and do) lots of ecological damage. They just weren't nearly as successful in the past as modern man. Be real.
 
virividox said:
i wonder if maybe boats should be fitted with sonar or a way to detect biologics so they dont collide
Click to expand...

Basic physics please. The ships are not nimble and can't dodge around to avoid relatively small nimble and fast moving things like whales. The rule of the sea is the little boat gets out of the way of the big boat. Basic physics. Check it out.
 
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