This year has reportedly seen a spate of attacks by orcas ("killer whales") against boats in the Strait of Gibraltar

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
1

Well, this can’t be good:

‘I’ve never seen or heard of attacks’: scientists baffled by orcas harassing boats. (From The Guardian, not The Weekly World News.)

The article does also say that “The encounters described around Barbate were certainly frightening for the crew, who understandably felt targeted, but it’s unlikely they were meant as aggressive attacks” and “In these and all other known cases, the mammals ignored the humans who took to life rafts; it was the boats that attracted their ire”.

There are also quotes from marine biologists saying–in so many words–that the orcas may be “pissed off” by various human-caused stresses (competition between the whales and human fishermen is apparently pretty intense, and orcas have definitely not always been the only aggressors: “Stories persist of fishermen stunning orca with electric prods, throwing lit petrol cans, cutting dorsal fins.”) So, it may just be payback time for the big black-and-white dolphins. Presumably their next step will be to evolve opposable thumbs.

Anyway, yet more evidence that 2020 is just awful and we’re all doomed.

2

Orcas are fierce. And, unlike sharks, smart & socially communicative. This can’t be good news. At least they don’t (yet) have worldwide communications. So it’ll take a few years for the news to migrate to the pods everywhere else on Earth.

3

Will lathes be far behind?

Thus far, all the opposable digits encountered appear to be fully functional, making it possible for dolphins–believed to be capable of faster and more complex cogitation than man–to manipulate objects, fashion tools, and construct rudimentary pulley and lever systems.

4

Has Bo Derek been warned?

5

I would like a cite on dolphins using pulleys and levers. :slight_smile:

6

It’s right there in that article linked by MEBuckner several posts above.

7

Douglas Adams has pointed out, as evidence of dolphins’ intelligence, that they never invented atomic weapons or New York City. It may become necessary to re-evaluate that opinion soon.

8

Reading that article, I admit the phrase “you’re gonna need a bigger boat” did cross my mind. And what was the name of the boat that they needed a bigger one than? The Orca!

9

First they called Moby Dick a terrorist. Then they called him a founding father.

10

You know they call them killer whales
But you seem surprised
When it pinned you down to the bottom of the tank
Where you can’t turn around
It took half your leg and both your lungs…

– People Got a Lotta Nerve by Neko Case

11

Thanks, Senegoid.

12

On the other hand, they did not win World War II.

13

Do you speak of his link to an onion post?

14

¡Sí!
.

15

Update: boats are sinking!

My favorite comment from the reportage:

We estimate that killer whales only touch one ship out of every hundred that sail through a location.

Only?

16

We boat in the Puget Sound. Hopefully the Super Killer Whales of Europe aren’t communicating with their more Docile Whales over here.

17

Maybe they’re just pissed about the name we’ve given them.

18

I told you all that freeing Willy was just going to end badly.

20

My bolding. :grimacing: Thanks for the nightmares…

21

Have they considered instituting a convoy system, like they had in WWII to combat the U-boat menace? A hundred ships could elude the orca wolfpack as easily as one.