Another whale vs boat

[ozskipper]

A BREACHING whale has leapt out of the sea off South Africa and landed on a boat, injuring three men, one seriously, officials say.

"The men claim they were motoring slowly approximately a kilometre offshore when a whale breached in front of their boat and came onto their boat, causing the boat and all three men to go under water as the whale sunk back into the water," said Ian Gray, National Sea Rescue Institute (NSRI) Port Elizabeth station commander.

Full story.
Whale lands on boat and injures three men off Port Elizabeth | News.com.au

[Rakuflames]

Originally Posted by ozskipper

A BREACHING whale has leapt out of the sea off South Africa and landed on a boat, injuring three men, one seriously, officials say.

"The men claim they were motoring slowly approximately a kilometre offshore when a whale breached in front of their boat and came onto their boat, causing the boat and all three men to go under water as the whale sunk back into the water," said Ian Gray, National Sea Rescue Institute (NSRI) Port Elizabeth station commander.

Full story.
Whale lands on boat and injures three men off Port Elizabeth | News.com.au

they're lucky to be alive!

[xymotic]

Well, better than a submarine, I guess.

[minaret]

Is it time to cross South Africa off the list? Two whale "attacks" in two years in the same country, what are the odds? Maybe the whales are getting smarter...

[micah719]

Taller, stronger rail......hmmm, what schedule pipe to withstand 20 tons of blubber descending at 28 knots?

[messias]

Does anybody know what boat was it? From the description i figured it was a fishing motor boat, and that´s strange because motor boats are less prone to these kind of "meetings" and whales (except when sleeping) tend to move away from them...

By the way... if it was a steel hull would it have made any difference at all?

[barnakiel]

Looks like RSA whales have some issues.

Hope the sailor will recover soon.

b.

[Steve Pope]

I have just returned from sailing up in Tongan waters, if I saw 1 whale I saw 1000 in the 6 weeks we were there. From big males to small calves, blowing, banging their flippers on the water, breaching, gulping down shoals of fish with the whale coming up underneath them, swimming alongside us etc.etc At no stage did they ever give us any doubt that they new exactly where we were and definitely no cause for alarm.

[micah719]

Was thinking about why.

Sonar?

There's considerable speculation that whale beachings are caused by subs honking their sonars around...difficult to know, because for some reason the navies won't tell much about their toys.

Perhaps depth-sounders and fish finders are offensive to whales? Perhaps it hurts their ears, or sounds like picking a fight, or signalling desire for procreation?

[minaret]

Originally Posted by micah719

Was thinking about why.

Sonar?

There's considerable speculation that whale beachings are caused by subs honking their sonars around...difficult to know, because for some reason the navies won't tell much about their toys.

Perhaps depth-sounders and fish finders are offensive to whales? Perhaps it hurts their ears, or sounds like picking a fight, or signalling desire for procreation?

In Dougal Robertsons "Survive the Savage Sea", he claims to have done some research after making it home from being sunk by a killer whale. He claims that government studies compiled numbers from similar incidents and concluded that wood boats were almost exclusively the victims. They postulated that the working of the timbers might make squeaking noises that could sound to a whale like smack talk. Never seen anything to support this theory or any such studies anywhere else, and of course that was a long time ago.

[Astrid]

Actually just the whale's are beginning to organize for all out payback after centuries of predation by humans.

[minaret]

Originally Posted by Astrid

Actually just the whale's are beginning to organize for all out payback after centuries of predation by humans.

If only! Sea Shepherd would find a way to arm the whales for sure...

[Carlisle Spirit]

..they were doing something they shouldn't have been doing ...

Who motors at 1 knot ?

[David_Old_Jersey]

Originally Posted by micah719

There's considerable speculation that whale beachings are caused by subs honking their sonars around...difficult to know, because for some reason the navies won't tell much about their toys.

Most likely reason is that some Whales are less bright than others: "don't worry - follow me - I know what I am doing".... ...well, an explanation that seems to fit some other mammals .

The Truth is out there - but it's usually fairly dull .

[messias]

Originally Posted by Carlisle Spirit

.

Who motors at 1 knot ?

Fishing!