Okra Pod
Posted on 09/13/2020 1:40:18 PM PDT by Capt. Tom
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Here is some inside info on Orcas that I got from Africa in an e-mail after saying we have a lot of White sharks here in Massachusetts.
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We have the opposite to report from S. Africa with a precipitous drop in sightings of GWs along most of the coastline around Cape Town to the top viewing site of Gansbaai. There are sightings further east but even there the numbers appear to be down.
How bad is it? In False Bay, home of the famous flying sharks the Shark Spotter Programme that has trained viewers out looking for sharks every day of the year on three mountains overlooking the bay there have been no sightings for the last year/ 18 months.
We are not sure of reasons. Could be presence of Orcas - there are two in the bay, called Port and Starboard due the lean of their fins - who have been implicated in the killing of GWs for their livers, neatly slicing open sharks and only removing the liver to eat.
Also a lot of legal and illegal longline activity inshore and offshore including the targeting of smaller sharks that may be prey. The GWs could also be falling prey to the longliners.
Still a lot of uncertainty around this but its not a good sign for the future of these animals in this part of the world. Quite a bit of research has been published but no certainty on the reason for this precipitous decline in numbers.
She’s always been orca to me. :)
:)
Okra Pod
Hmmm??,,Can ANTIFA members Swim?
I expected Ted Kennedy pics. I must be getting old.
There have been lots of shark week shows where Orcas prey on Great White sharks, rolling them on their backs to drown them and then eating their huge livers, and leaving the rest for other marine life to consume. I mean, nothing goes to waste in the ocean. SOMETHING will eat it.
I hate the way the Japanese cultivate shark fins and leave the rest of the shark, mostly because they harvest so dang many. But it is not like we are running out of sharks (Somebody will challenge me on that immediately. Bank on it.). But it is not like the rest of the shark is laying out in the desert to rot. Something in the ocean is going to get a free meal they can use. Even if it is just other sharks.
I never liked the term “killer whale”. I means, we don’t use “killer eagle” or “killer lion” or “killer wolf”. Sure, I understand the distinction, but even calling them whales is a complete misnomer. They are the same family as porpoise and dolphins, all of which are predators.
Hate the name false killer whale as well. They are just dumb names.
I do laugh on shark week when they talk about Great Whites, or Bull sharks, or Tigers being the top of the heap. Without doubt, Orcas can take down anything in the ocean and are more or less immune to predation from other species. I guess a new born calf that is sick or can’t swim will be scooped up pretty quick by predators, but that is an entirely different subject. Even an adolescent Orca is pretty much immune to predation.
Orcas = huge + fast + very smart + cooperate + communicate = nothing in the ocean even comes close.
Top dogs for sure, and yet they make dandy pets at Marine World. Life is amazing and God is wonderful. Just no end to surprises here on earth.
This has been known for a long time. Saw video on TV about it years ago. So these scientists didn’t discover anything.
I think I saw this in the theater.
Ouch, that is not a good development. We definitly don’t want to be on the Orca’s naughty list. It will be interesting to find out why Orcas are ramming boats. Hunting pressure? Over population? They can’t be mistaking a boat for anything else than a boat. Not for an hour-long attack.
Not a good development at all.
And, why Spain?
“ And, why Spain?”
Maybe for the tasty tapas....
Here is some inside info on Orcas that I got from Africa in an e-mail after saying we have a lot of White sharks here in Massachusetts.
----------------------------------------------------------
We have the opposite to report from S. Africa with a precipitous drop in sightings of GWs along most of the coastline around Cape Town to the top viewing site of Gansbaai. There are sightings further east but even there the numbers appear to be down.
How bad is it? In False Bay, home of the famous flying sharks the Shark Spotter Programme that has trained viewers out looking for sharks every day of the year on three mountains overlooking the bay there have been no sightings for the last year/ 18 months.
We are not sure of reasons. Could be presence of Orcas - there are two in the bay, called Port and Starboard due the lean of their fins - who have been implicated in the killing of GWs for their livers, neatly slicing open sharks and only removing the liver to eat.
Also a lot of legal and illegal longline activity inshore and offshore including the targeting of smaller sharks that may be prey. The GWs could also be falling prey to the longliners.
Still a lot of uncertainty around this but its not a good sign for the future of these animals in this part of the world. Quite a bit of research has been published but no certainty on the reason for this precipitous decline in numbers.
I have read accounts of these attacks that show the orcas have a specific pattern for conducting them. This pattern involves the attacking orca striking the great white shark in its midbody with a heavy blow using their snout. The stunned shark is then rolled on to its back to induce the well-known trance effect that this maneuver has on sharks. The orca is them free to predate at will on the stunned and unresisting shark’s liver.
However, the accounts I have read and the YouTube videos I’ve seen limit this behavior to a multigeneration orca family group migrating up and down the west coast of North and Central America. It appears to be a learned behavior for the orcas. That would fit their mammalian heritage, family living, and general high intelligence. The fact that they have the technique “down cold,” so to speak, would seem to indicate they have been developing and refining it for awhile.
How long? Long enough for the cold blooded, generally solitary, dangerous predatory fish they are hunting to develop a hard wired behavioral response to some indication that orcas are in the area. That is the work of generations upon generations.
What is the trigger? My bet is the trigger for the response to flee the area is hearing orca-specific vocalizations and maybe feeling the sound/pressure wave from the midbody attacks if the attack is immediately nearby. An interesting expansion of the research might be to see if Great White Sharks in completely different locations have the same responses to hearing orcas nearby. Say playback recordings of the orcas and orca attacks to sharks schooling to feed on seals off of Cape Town in South Africa?
How they react could be very interesting.
Uh I think we knew this 50 years ago?
One summer in the mid 60s I worked on an albacore boat out of San Pedro, Cal. Interesting time to say the least. The captain had extreme respect for killer whales, so much so that he wouldn’t let us on deck when he thought he saw one’s fin. He told stories of them snatching fishermen off of the deck. Also said he knew of a skipper who spent the better part of a day on his boat’s mast to stay out of their reach. (Reminds me of the scene in Tremors—but this was over 20 years before the movie).
He also said that they would kill much larger whales by harassing them, butting them with their heads until the whale opened its mouth. They’d then eat the tongue out of the whale’s mouth, then letting it bleed to death.
Never felt the love for them.
“Well, maybe that’s about to change...”
Well, it is 2020. ;-)
Captain Tom,
Apologies for my ignorance concerning the orcas off of Cape Town. I hadn’t come across that reporting. However, it does support the idea that orcas have been feeding on Great Whites long enough for the flight response to become embedded in their behavior.
That’s a long time for a fish.
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