Whales Attack

 

I've mentioned before a few times that, for reasons I'm not aware of, I have very extreme emotional responses to several subjects; and one of them is the welfare of cetaceans, marine mammals of the whale and dolphin variety, for example see: https://hpanwo-voice.blogspot.com/2018/12/japan-resumes-whaling.html. Therefore I was curious when I discovered that a number of boats off the coast of the Iberian Peninsula have been attacked by whales. There have been over five hundred recorded incidents in the Mediterranean Sea, Strait of Gibraltar and Atlantic coast of Spain and Portugal. They began in 2020 and continue to this day. They have been blamed on a single community of orcas or killer whales nicknamed "Gladys". This is short for Orcinus Gladiator, Latin for "whale-fighter". The vessels targeted are usually small to medium sized sailing boats although a few motorboats have suffered attacks. The incidents are usually in daylight and consist of the whale grabbing the rudder in its teeth or biting the keel. There have been several sinkings as a result, including the loss of Tifare, a fifty foot French yacht which was attacked off Peniche, Portugal in October. The crew escaped in a lifeboat and transferred to a trawler. The lifeboat and rescue craft were not attacked, indicating this was not an aggressive action. Scientists believe this behaviour is a form of play. Source: https://uk.whales.org/2023/08/25/orcas-are-not-attacking-boats-say-leading-scientists/. Orcas are highly intelligent and the Gibraltarian marine biologist Eric Shaw claims that they were being protective and were intentionally targeting the rudder with the understanding that it would immobilize the vessel, just as attacking the tail of a prey animal would immobilize it. There's some evidence to suggest these incidents are spreading. Some whales have attacked boats in the North Sea. A few people have wondered if this is some kind of revenge. If so then few could argue it was not justified. From what we know of cetacean mentality that seems unlikely. They would have to make decisions as a group and coordinate. Despite that, I can't help wondering. According to Denise Herzing whales have a complex auditory language, see the background link below. There's a film called Orca- the Killer Whale which I watched once and will never do so again. It is by far the most disturbing and horrifying film I've ever seen. It is a story about human evil expressed through extreme animal cruelty. In the film an orca deliberately and systematically targets a group of people on a boat for the purposes of revenge. One of the lines in the film states: "the orca is one of the few species apart from man to have shown behaviour motivated by revenge" (That's not an exact quote. Please don't ask me for a correction; as I said, I never want to see that film again.) I can't help imagining that this film is coming true, to a lesser extent. If so then it is indiscriminate; not personal against a particular individual, but a dislike of human beings generally. I suppose there is a part of me which would like that to be the explanation. It's very unlikely though. Probably the scientists are right.

See here for more information: https://hpanwo-tv.blogspot.com/2018/04/dolphins-reply-to-stefan-molyneux.html.