Why do we not have an Ambassador To The Cetaceans?
Yep, some silly-assed fishman decided to attack an orca “it is eating my fish”, and this is revenge.
Yep, makes sense.
Orcas learn new behaviour all the time, and pass it on.
A local pod relatively recently learned how tasty Great White Shark liver is, for instance. Probably taught by two new arrivals to the area.
I wsa going to say that I’d read their were two type of orcas, those who stayed in the same area and those who travelled widely, but on looking for a cite I see that this distinction between “resident” and “transient” orcas is not consistent over time but very much dependent on food source availability.
In recent years, with the continuing decline of Chinook salmon, the so-called resident orcas are spending less time in their traditional fishing grounds while they seek salmon in open coastal waters. Transients, whose food is abundant, are spending more time in the Salish Sea. If research started on these orcas today, it’s possible the transients could be labeled resident.
While these labels have stuck (though unique to the Pacific Northwest orcas), orca biologists prefer to reference differences between populations as “eco-types” which is usually a combination of their prey choices, range and habitat.
In any case, it seems that at any given time, there are going to be some orcas travelling long distances and meeting new pods, at which point there’s an opportunity to share behaviour as per @MrDibble’s example.
Because Agatha Heterodyne isn’t available?
Actually, it’s simpler than that.
We have sent several emissaries and even an ambassador to the Cetaceans.
We’re still struggling to decode their language but in each case the response included the Cetaceans burping, and laying on their backs with their flippers folded contentedly across their bellies. Meanwhile we’ve received no messages from any of our emissaries and believe they have “gone native”.
At least it’s better than our laboratory attempts at communication.
If we do succeed in destroying ourselves, the rest of nature certainly isn’t going to miss us. We eat them, subjugate them, destroy their habitats, and endanger their entire world.
Let the species that never invented skinny jeans, parachute pants, and sagging, throw the first stone.
An interesting solution:
Full Title: Sailors are looking for new ways to ward off orca attacks – and say blasting thrash metal could be a “game changer”
You’d think if any animal liked thrash metal, it would be orcas. Maybe they’re partial to Wagner instead.
Amazingly, this entirely sensible plan doesn’t seem to have worked:
Perhaps they could try elevator music. The orcas will become incredibly bored and move on.
Not many small boats have elevators.
The orcas don’t know that.
Poison darts stuck to the rudder?
Classical music and opera seem to be the default music for deterring vagrants and gang members outside convenience stores.
For orcas, having “Sea Cruise” on a loop might be worth trying.
Have they tried installing silmarils on the boat’s hull?
Oh wait, that only works on orcs, not orcas.
I’m going to go with driving ten penny nails through the rudder.
It doesn’t get rid of the orcs, but even worse it will sure attract the sons of Feanor, and you don’t want that, believe me
They’re baaa-aaack.
The vessel, Alboran Cognac, which measured 15 metres (49ft) in length and carried two people, encountered the highly social apex predators, also known as killer whales, at 9am local time on Sunday.
The passengers reported feeling sudden blows to the hull and rudder before the boat started taking on water. After alerting the rescue services, a nearby oil tanker took them onboard and transported them to Gibraltar. The yacht was left adrift and eventually sank.