Good grief the Poms are thick. They are running around saying that a dead and rotting Orca is a sea monster of some sort.
A video of a mysterious carcass washed up on a New Zealand beach has gone viral. Experts have suggested that the carcass is that of a killer whale but this has failed to quash “sea monster” speculation.
Radio New Zealand reports on interesting findings about whale strandings:
Scientists researching whale strandings have hit on a new theory that social disruption prior to strandings might be the cause, rather than following sick family members to a shallow beach.
A whale specialist with both the University of Auckland and the University of Oregon in the United States, Scott Baker, says genetic testing has found 120 pilot whales which stranded on Stewart Island were not all closely related. Read more »
Saturday started with a Face of the Day photo that was a bit hard to look at before breakfast. Cam finds a Frenchman worthy of respect, and is pleased to find they aren’t all cheese eating surrender monkeys. Count Jacques le Bel de Penguilly does have a poofy name though. Five Lesbians Eating a Quiche is a play that Whale suggests David Farrar should review for his Womans Weekly blog. Australia charges its second Catholic Priest for child sex crimes, and this blog continues to ask: Why is New Zealand immune? We’re either better than the rest of the world or we’re still covering it up. Which is it, and why? Sadly, another Cry Baby post where we highlight those who aren’t taking personal responsibility. This time, people who booked on Jetstar had their flights cancelled are in the paper bleating they’ll never fly Jetstar again. If only they knew this could happen, eh? Sharing a public space is tough when the others are eating, playing music and talking on their phones. Cam Slater throws in a joke about an ERO school inspector and Hekia Parata, and follows it up with a post where he reveals that politicians lie. Yeah. Why do women wear high heels? It can get to the point of ridiculousness for sure. An interesting post showing that a Connecticut newspaper is still advertising guns right next to Sandy Hook School news. That was followed by a post of dash cam footage from 1927 as well as dash cam footage of a plane crash last week. Next a top drawer post about glow in the dark toilet paper and poop hand soap. Only on WOBH. An interesting BBC2 short about Gordon Buchanan turning himself potential into Polar Bear lunch leads a post about Iron Maiden showing Steve Harris wearing a Whale Oil Beef Hooked T-Shirt. Perhaps we should avoid NZ Herald Stock tips: Australian shares are hot apparently? Especially those APN stocks. Oh, and Fairfax stocks are doing just great as well. And as we wind down towards the end of the Saturday, we have a post about a CK Stead letter in which he slams the Binnie report as having clear bias. Read more »
Luna (September 19, 1999 – March 10, 2006) also known as L98 or Tsuux’iit, was a killer whale (orca) born in Puget Sound. After being separated from his mother as a toddler, Luna spent five years in Nootka Sound, off the west coast of Vancouver Island.
We were promised that the Arctic would be ice free by 2012. Well it isn’t and as a result a pod of Orca are in great peril as the ice closes in around them:
Locals are calling for an ice-breaker to help free the mammals. Photo: AP/Marina Lacasse
Twelve whales are caught in a death trap outside of a northern Quebec fishing village.
Since Monday, the killer whales have been stranded under thick layers of sea ice near the town of Inukjuak, on the northeastern coast of the Hudson Bay. They take turns breathing through a small breach in the ice, but one expert says that if immediate action isn’t taken to free them, the whales could suffocate or die from exhaustion.
“These are large animals competing for breathing space in a hole not much larger than your desk,” said Lyne Morisette, a marine ecologist and researcher at the Université de Québec à Rimouski. “We don’t have two weeks to manoeuvre here.”
About 25 km of ice separates the pod from open water, meaning it would take an ice breaking ship to open a path for them.
An Inuit hunter stumbled upon the whales earlier this week while tracking seals. killer whales are a rare sight in the Hudson Bay during winter, and the animals have drawn dozens of curious locals from Inukjuak — a one-hour snowmobile ride from the ice breach.
The Inuit seem perplexed as to what to do about the Orca. Read more »
You know how it works, any article about Orca will get commented on. They are the coolest whales:
Expatriate Kiwi Craig Harman’s festive holidays got a special boost when he had this close encounter with a group of orcas in the Waitemata Harbour.
The London-based television cameraman was in Auckland visiting his parents when the orcas, including two youngsters, surrounded the family boat near Motuihe Island about 4.30pm on Thursday.
“We were on a fishing trip and suddenly eight or nine whales in two groups appeared from nowhere and came over to the boat for a look at us,” Harman, 34, said. “It was incredible seeing something so majestic swimming in a city harbour.
“In London, the most exotic thing I have seen was a seal in the River Thames so this was an unforgettable experience.”
Obligatory Orca whale post:
An astonishing encounter between a crayfish diver, a frightened dog and a pod of hungry orca has been caught on video.
Scott de Jongh, 34, and his friend Dale Graham were diving at Mathesons Bay just north of Auckland last Sunday when the pod of orca came between them and the shoreline.
De Jongh, of Auckland, said they had no idea the orca were less than 20m away because visibility was bad underwater.
“We didn’t notice until we finished the dive. Then we saw the dorsal fins,” De Jongh said.
The stunned divers climbed on to a rock and waited about 15 minutes for the orca to leave before swimming to shore.
“I was actually quite relaxed, I knew it was (not a shark) because the fin was quite long and black in colour. It was a really, really good experience.”
Twenty minutes later, two orca returned and De Jongh’s wife, Deonette, was ready with a camera.
The video, which has more than 8000 views on YouTube, shows a frightened diver scrambling on to a rock.
He whips off his goggles and peers frantically around at the murky water.
The orca loses interest in the man and turns towards a curious labrador in the water. Within seconds, the dog turns and paddles for land as the orca follows.
Some pod members have been feeding in Queen Charlotte Sound:
Dolphin Watch Nature Tour guides have been treated to the sight of a pod of orca whales feeding on stingray in Queen Charlotte Sound, Marlborough.
Guide Paul Luxton said staff on board a tour boat spent about 45 minutes watching one big male, three females and three calves feeding on stingrays in Kumototo Bay on Tuesday morning.
The whales swam close to the shore, coming in quickly to catch the stingrays, and the water turned white from all the splashing, he said.
If it has an Orca in it then the story gets blogged. Morgan needs to be set free:
New Zealand orca expert Ingrid Visser is hoping shocking evidence of a captive orca’s injuries will persuade a Dutch court to set it free.
Dr Visser is due to give evidence in an Amsterdam court today in a last-ditch attempt to force Dutch authorities to reconsider last year’s decision to allow a young orca to be exported to a theme park in Spain’s Canary Islands.
The female orca, known as Morgan, was rescued off the Dutch coast in 2010 and taken to a marine park near Amsterdam where it was nursed back to health.
The park claimed Morgan was unsuitable for a return to the wild, and transferred it to Loro Parque in Tenerife after getting a green light from the Amsterdam District Court in November 2011.
Dr Visser said she had observed Morgan at Loro Parque for 77 hours over eight days, and saw 91 acts of aggression against Morgan by other orca in the tank. She had documented 320 bite and puncture marks on the orca’s body, not including injuries inflicted by Morgan’s own abnormal behaviour such as banging her head against the side of the tank. The orca was also wearing its teeth down by chewing on the concrete, which was likely to lead to infection.
