Whale Story

[MasterBlaster]

This is most excellent! Must see!!!

<iframe width="420" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/tcXU7G6zhjU" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

[Al Smith]

Wow !

[MasterBlaster]

YA'LL WATCH THIS!!!

[vharrison]

Awesome!

[CurSedVoyce]

I love that story :)

[cory]

Very cool, good find. Quite a creature.

[MasterBlaster]

That was one happy whale!

[Mrs.B]

That was great, Butch! This is the time of year that the Gray Whales begin their trek south to have their babies in the Sea of Cortez. So for the next several months we can see the whales from shore. I've been seeing them everyday lately. They come in pretty close in certain areas around here so a person can really get a good look. Mostly you just see their spouts blowing and their long backs slithering through the water and their big tail fin at the end. I've been here all my life and have yet to see a whale breach. They rarely do it. I hope sometime I am lucky enough to see it. Watching whales is exhilarating!

[Rborist1]

Awesome story! We saw humpbacks breach almost everyday last year when we where in Kauai, it is an awesome site to see for sure. I can't wait to see them again.

[MasterBlaster]

Man, I gotta see one! I wanna swim with one! YES!

[Mrs.B]

You can go out on a boat for half a day and get close enough to take great pics for $65. Used to be they'd get you close enough to touch one but there's a law against that now. I've seen some amazing aerial photos that our friends with planes have taken.

[NeTree]

Awesome story, and an excellent job well done!

[cory]

It was interesting that the whale seemed virtuallly whipped at the beginning, but once the netting was removed he proved to have quite a bit of energy left. Maybe that means he had not been entangled for long.

Swimming with them would be wild, and to look into their eyes. I like hearing their massive exhalations, it sounds like immense natural power.

I was wondering if the whale were thinking, "yo, I better be more careful about that netting stuff," but I presume netting like that is virtually invisible underwater even to the perfectly adapted ocean creatures with super senses, so it could probably happen again at any time:(

[NeTree]

The netting didn't really seem to stand out much even against the white background of the boat; so yeah, it's probably just about invisible in the water.

[woodworkingboy]

Quite a show the whale put on. That would be fantastic to see in person. I was struck by it's breathing when entangled. It didn't sound too good.

[SouthSoundTree]

Pretty amazing!

[Porkbrick]

reminds me of this one.<object style="height: 390px; width: 640px"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/f7-y8LC50r8?version=3&feature=player_detailpage"><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"><param name="allowScriptAccess" value="always"><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/f7-y8LC50r8?version=3&feature=player_detailpage" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowfullscreen="true" allowScriptAccess="always" width="640" height="360"></object>

[Al Smith]

I've never seen one but I've heard what appeared to be dozens in a pod .They communicate by sound waves .Some are below the frequency of the human ear much like an elephant .The low frequencys can travel for miles .

Might sound hard to believe but you can distinquise between whales if you listen long enough .Strangley like humans they all have a different voice .

Now I have seen bottle nose dolphins by the hundreds and several orcas in a pod but no true whales .

[Al Smith]

It was probably the documented incident in 1820 of a large probably male sperm whale that sank the whaler "Essex " the inspiration for the book Moby Dick .

[Porkbrick]

check this out. there is a documentary about it too.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Killer_whales_of_Eden,_Australia

[woodworkingboy]

Wow, whales as paid mercenaries!

[Porkbrick]

from the documentary it sounds like the whales hired the people!

[Al Smith]

I would assume that old Tom acquired that from a learned behavior .The whalers were only interested in the the balleen and blubber of the captured whales for lamp oil .The rest was discarded thus food for the orcas .It is rather strange behavior though .

Usually a heathly adult gray or blue whale or a large sperm whale is a tad too much for an orca .Prey that large they only go after the sick or the young .

The few pods of the oceanic species I saw were off the grand banks so I can only assume they were the type which eats fish rather than sea mammals .

[canadiantreeman]

Really a great story, good find bossman!

[Treepreacher51]

Awesome Vid. Watched it with my kids.

[MasterBlaster]

One of those "Feel Good" kinda things, like the move "The Bear." At the end of the film, you felt GREAT!!! Ya'll seen that flick? See it!

[flushcut]

Cool video!

[NeTree]

Hated it; I thought the anti-hunting message in "The Bear" was unmistakeable and excessive.

[MasterBlaster]

Yup, that sounds like your thinking.

[NeTree]

Bite me. :lol:

[rbtree]

porkbrick, that's a great story.

As was the first, butch, which I saw some time ago.

Could be related to climate change, but this was in our news a while back--blue whales off our coast

http://www.king5.com/news/pets-and-animals/Times-As-whale-sightings-go-this-is-big--135642218.html

[Tree Reb]

That would have been a surprise.They hang around down south but they don't come up here, just Humpbacks usually.8)


Don't let Japan know or they'll be after them next.:(

http://www.heraldsun.com.au/business/japans-threat-to-our-whale-watch-industry/story-fn7j19iv-1226229026051

JAPANESE plans to hunt humpback whales in Antarctica could ruin Australia's $300 million-a-year whale-watching industry, says a former whaling captain.

[NeTree]

The Sea Shepherd now has an unmanned aerial drone they can use to spot and track the whaling ships.

I'm in for putting torpedoes on that sucker and sinking the bastids.

[MasterBlaster]

The Sea Shepherd? Or the whalers?

[NeTree]

The whalers, of course.

[stig]

There is another thread about eco-terrorism on the forum right now. http://masterblasterhome.com/showthread.php?15315-If-A-Tree-Falls-Documentary

This is a case of " What is sauce for the goose"

If it is ok to torpedo whalingships, why isn't it ok to firebomb clearcut logging operations?

And, yes, I know there are more loggers than whalers on this forum, but still.

[NeTree]

Loggers are logging land they have a legal right to log.

The whalers are whaling in international waters, not theirs, against international treaty to which they are a part.


Nothing says stop your illegal whaling like a Mark V, Stig. ;)

[woodworkingboy]

I saw a cooking show on TV recently where they were using whale blubber. Quite a number of people in Japan are opposed to whale hunting, but when it comes to the port towns where killing whales is a generations old occupation, people are slow to pick up on the need for a new way of thinking, and that tends to influence society as a whole, as well as what results from the ties to the government. Apparently the earthquake relief funds that were diverted to support whaling, are in response to one particular area that was devastated by the tsunami, the income from the whale hunt can help rebuild, is the claim. Unfortunately, the Japanese are not very well educated in being able to think for themselves, more a do as everyone else does society. It gets you lack of crime and kamikazes. Whale is delicious and looks rather enticing sitting on a platter, but i won't eat it.

[Tree Reb]

Apparently the earthquake relief funds that were diverted to support whaling, are in response to one particular area that was devastated by the tsunami, the income from the whale hunt can help rebuild, is the claim.

I guess a lot of people didn't know that, me for one.

The drone is working but some big seas at the moment.
http://au.news.yahoo.com/world/a/-/world/12468493/huge-waves-damage-anti-whaling-boat/

Japan's coastguard has deployed an unspecified number of vessels to protect the whaling ships, using some tsunami reconstruction funds.

[NeTree]

Wonder how they'd presume to have any jurisdiction on the high seas in international waters? Kinda the opposite of "coastal law enforcement"?