'Scary moment' as orcas disrupt ocean boat race | Hacker News Reader

'Scary moment' as orcas disrupt ocean boat race

cbc.ca

88 pointscolinprince89 comments

Alternative title: Scary moment as boat race disrupts orcas.

How do you know the orcas were disrupted?

> the latest encounter in what researchers say is a growing trend of aggressive interactions with Iberian orcas.

Sounds like the orcas were acting with intention.

One of the hypotheses being floated around is that the orcas are fighting back against boats after one of their elders were traumatised, and others include the idea that they're basically protesting against noise pollution, overfishing, dangers to water mammals etc.

Orcanizing

I'll allow it

when i sit in my apartment trying to relax or focus and a super loud motorcycle drives by i do feel disrupted and also fantasize about intentionally disrupting that motorcycle.

so, i can relate to the orcas and it goes both ways with the disrupting.

Yes, I agree. It’s very unlikely that humans disrupt the natural habitat of other species.

Not humans, the suggested headline specifically mentions the boat race causing the disruption.

And the boat race was made by boats, isn't it?

A implies B does not mean B implies A. Certain human activities disturbs orcas, but that doesn’t mean all human activities disturb orcas.

Well...We are a no lesser Species in this planet, and this was just a freedom of navigation operation...

Did you just say humans have right of way because we are benign and equal rights species as an animal?

Yes

These takes are trying to impose a weird "pure primitive world" take on something a pragmatic person would recognize for what it is. The orcas are messing with "weak" sailboats on purpose and leaving the "strong" boats alone. They're essentially bullying the sailboats.

To admit this doesn't make you a specist and doesn't force you to also believe that the animals should be harmed, btw.

> The orcas are messing with "weak" sailboats on purpose and leaving the "strong" boats alone.

This only shows "human" intelligence.

“They seemed more aggressive/playful when we were sailing at speed. Once we slowed down they also started to be less aggressive in their attacks”

This is an interesting detail. It definitely supports the leading theories, that either they’re playing (chasing fast moving things is more fun) or reacting defensively after the pod experienced a ship collision.

Orcas are afraid of literally nothing. They can eat great white sharks and blue whale calves. The only solution here is probably to explore something as a nonlethal deterrent, like spikes on hulls/rudders or an underwater klaxon.

> only solution here is probably to explore something as a nonlethal deterrent

Or we could stop boating in their space

Unfortunately, human communication is extremely complex. Researchers are only beginning to scratch its surface.

The current approach is to fit them with helmets that project sounds and images of boats for the humans to sail in. Then it's just a matter of shooting the relevant humans with non-lethal darts and fitting them with the helmets. However, that's easier said than done. And there are latency issues with the helmets. (Not to mention early research suggesting they become less likely to mate, plus a whole host of health issues which we don't see in the wild.)

i like your humor ;D leaves me a little confused but in a pleasant way.

And, now you've land locked North America: https://www.fisheries.noaa.gov/s3/styles/original/s3/dam-mig...

A small price to pay to make sure orcas are never annoyed again!

I, for one, welcome our new oceanic overlords. We need a new direction for our civilization, and more whalesong is one I can get on board with.

Orca World HQ has issued its demands. #1 is genetic mods for opposable thumbs.

That's a whalesome thought.

> is one I can get on board with

As long as that board isn't in the ocean, then I'm with you!

Good luck halting all small craft boating in the Strait of Gibraltar.

It would appear the orcas do not share your defeatist attitude

It would be better if they did share his defeatist attitude because it isn’t a fight they can win either, nor one humans are likely to choose to lose.

I like Orcas. I don’t want to see them attacked. :(

Is there really no middle ground where we can attempt to reach a diplomatic solution?

Well, it seems, we're in the midst of a communication breakdown. We've lost all hope of speaking with the whales.

Oops, we were supposed to be speaking with the dolphins!

Technically Orcas are dolphins.

Yes that's why we need to talk to dolphins in order to negotiate with the orcas rather than whales. That's the joke kind of thing.

So, because people are doing it we can't have laws that say it's not desired ?

So… the ocean?

(Nobody tell this person how the device they’re using was transported to their continent.)

GP was mentioning possible solutions. You are reaching for impossible ones.

Aren’t they pretty much everywhere? Or, do you mean, don’t use the Oceans at all?

Apparently dropping sand from the aft of your boat acts as a good deterrent:

“sprinkling sand into the water around the rudder confuses the orca’s sonar” during an interaction, the Cruising Association has said.

“The orcas are coming in on sonar, not sight, we know that,” said John Burbeck, the Orca Project team leader at the Cruising Association. “And a few kilogrammes of sand around the rudder confuses that sonar picture they’re picking up.”

https://www.pbo.co.uk/news/orca-sand-deterrence-77513

I think you'd rather use glitter.

I was thinking some small electrodes, that run down the fin, to give them an uncomfortable tingle when they try to contact it. That way, it would still maintain a direct cause->effect relation from the fin, and not directly related to a human.

There are electric shark deterrent systems, but I don't think they're very good at speed, where the electrodes could be applied to the fin, using marine-readied conductive tape, or just thin wires at the leading/trailing edges.

Orcas are apparently afraid of pilot whales.

Fascinating, I didn’t know that. Apparently it’s like crows mobbing an owl or an eagle.

https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10211-022-00394-1

not really afraid. pilot whales are just obviously super intelligent and so orcas respect them a lot.

My initial reaction was also something along the lines of spikes, but though it may be non-lethal, it isn't non-harmful, and depending on the unknown logic of an Orca, it may just force them to find an alternative method.

Uhm. No.

My theory is that we’re going to fast in the orca equivalent of a school zone.

When the race stopped they also made a bunch of noise to scare away the orcas, sailboats are probably pretty quite gliding. If I was an orca and someone made a bunch of noise around me I’d sink them too.

> The only solution here is probably to explore something as a nonlethal deterrent, like spikes on hulls/rudders or an underwater klaxon.

Or lethal means. Orcas are smart enough to figure out that messing with boats will result in death and pass that around.

IIRC Iberian orcas are endangered. Besides that, just suggesting to kill a living being for merely disturbing some irrelevant boat race that takes place in the domain of that creature is beyond me.

What makes the boat race irrelevant? Boat racing is a fairly long running tradition that is an important part of many cultures.

> What makes the boat race irrelevant? Boat racing is a fairly long running tradition that is an important part of many cultures.

"Hey, Tatuco, didn't you have this custom tossing live people into that volcano ?

Yes, but not for 200 years.

Ever think of reviving that custom ?" Buddy, Buddy

You didn't answer my question.

I welcome people having a healthy fear of orcas.

If you see orcas, you should move away from them and leave them alone. Some states, like Washington, are passing laws requiring that you stay a certain distance from them at all times.

I really want this to be something that has been going on since long ago, like "there be dragons" long ago. Only, the brave strong men didn't want to admit that some cute looking Free Willy animal was causing the havoc, so they all agreed to make it scary sea monsters type of tales.

Whales and killer whales ramming boats is nothing new, only thing that really changed is that most boats are now strong enough to survive it so we get the report and the internet means everyone gets to hear about it. In the wooden boat days a whale or orca could effortlessly sink your boat and when you read the writings of the early small boat sailors (cruising and racing sorts) they are very nervous when whales are in sight because they all knew the damage they could do to their boat. The sailors were perfectly OK with admitting their fears of orca and whales and did not find them cute.

If that were to come true, what would it change for you?

Everything

I always considered the stories about sea monsters to be greatly exaggerated.

What? No, that’s impossible. Next you’ll be saying mermaids aren’t real too!

Only reverse mermaids are known to exists.

Some relevant resources:

Cruising Association orca notification system https://www.theca.org.uk/orcas

GT Orca Atlantica - information about the Iberian orca and interactions https://www.orcaiberica.org/en

This needs boosting. I mean, there's actual underwater video of this thing that has been happening lately in e.g. Portugal.

Canadian website, but still the same general area as previous orca encounters:

"A pod of killer whales bumped one of the boats in an endurance sailing race as it approached the Strait of Gibraltar"

They are just trying to traverse the Causeway of Gibraltar [orca/whale perspective] and are being harassed by stupid noisy critters leaping out of the land to block their way and annoy them. So one of them "kicked" a boat.

Ah, sorry. (I edited my comment to remove that part.)

Orcas are hooligans and have a culture with fads such as wearing dead salmon on their snouts. They are just having fun at the expense of us humans.

https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/killer-whale-orca-tren...

I see no problems with this. We invade their domain and ruin it, we just gotta play by their rules now.

Reverse the terminology for land and water domains.

We emerge like vermin from their coastal airs to invade their waters. We cannot fly in their water - we crawl along the surface - but we are still a big fat PITA.

Probably their way of getting back at us for increased ocean temperatures.

I really want to know if orca attacks are actually happening with more frequency or just their reporting has increased.

This will become really scary if they start attacking sailboats in the open ocean. While you're close to land you can always call for help. Imagine being in the middle of nowhere and they destroy your rudders so you have no way of changing direction. Even worse at some cases they have attacked the hull.

They sank 3 ships just recently https://www.livescience.com/animals/orcas/orcas-have-sunk-3-...

Sailboats can steer with just their sails, will limit the directions you can go but you are not completely adrift. Mainly it means you stop being picky about where you make landfall and just pick the nearest port given prevailing winds.

tldr: orcas are teaching each other how to sink boats.

I love how the article asks "why?" when humans are an apocalyptic plague on their entire universe.

In the case of the orca this is an easy question to answer.

Its for the lulz.

Given how orcas were wearing dead fish hats for a year or so, then abandoned the practice entirely, "for the lulz" isn't necessarily wrong.

Do orcas engage in an equivalent of intertribal warfare?

If not they might not even have instincts for group defense or retaliation (except in the context of one off encounters with predators).

Not all-out warfare but there can be inter-pod skirmishes. They also hunt in groups and communicate the movement of their prey to co-ordinate their attacks together.

Maybe they're trying to warn us about something down there.

Or impending planetary destruction? So long, and thanks for all the fish!

Parent might be referring to this recent TV series: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0808491/

They were more likely referring to The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.

I'm familiar with THGTTG, but recalled they were dolphins, not orcas.

Remember, orcas are our friends -- they're just not friends with yacht-owning billionaires.

What we need is larger orcas, and more of them, and also air-orcas.

I’m team orcas no matter what!

It's time to bring back the harpoon

The problem is orca is about the size of yacht, and can literally sink it. Second, on yacht you can install only a toy harpoon, if you want sails, rudder, dinghy, etc...

The easy option would be something annoying. Like underwater ultrasound speaker. Better responder which will respond to their pings with sh*tload of garbage.

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