Orcas sink yachts: Is it revenge or playful behavior? Expert weighs in.

Comrade Willy

  • jordanlund@lemmy.world
    66·
    4 months ago

    Last I heard, they’re bored and rudders are fun to play with.

    We need to give them some orca proof toys.

      • Jo Miran@lemmy.ml
        62·
        4 months ago

        I’m not. It’s only a matter of time before some rich asshole starts shooting at the whales, dropping sticks of dynamite or some equivalent callous and heartless thing. I don’t give two shits about the rich fucks, but I am highly concerned about the consequences to the whales. Humans, as a species, have no chill.

        • Flying Squid@lemmy.world
          50·
          4 months ago

          The word yacht doesn’t mean wealth,

          Yes, yes it does. It doesn’t mean ‘billionaire,’ but these aren’t subsistence fishermen we’re talking about here.

          It was a $128,000 yacht. If you don’t think people who can afford such a yacht are rich, you are one privileged person.

          • grue@lemmy.worldEnglish
            26·
            4 months ago

            It was a $128,000 yacht. If you don’t think people who can afford such a yacht are rich, you are one privileged person.

            You’d be surprised how many people own a $128,000 yacht INSTEAD of a more-than-$128,000 house.

            (Of course, there are even more people who live aboard full-time on much-less-than-$128,000 yachts. For example, Sailing Uma probably have a bunch of money now 'cause they’re relatively successful Youtubers, but they started out spending only about $10k total (purchase + initial refit costs) for their 50-year-old, 36-foot boat. There’s an entire subculture of people doing basically nautical #vanlife, and they aren’t any richer than the homeless-by-conventional-standards people doing it on land.)

            • SeemsNormal@lemmy.world
              2·
              4 months ago

              I’ve met them, they fucked up someone else’s boat in the marina I was at, they didn’t offer to fix or help pay, they just bailed. They definitely fit into the asshole category, in my opinion.

          • Cypher@lemmy.world
            11·
            4 months ago

            You’re literally attacking middle class people for having a small yacht.

            Your concept of wealthy is really skewed.

            • Flying Squid@lemmy.world
              6·
              4 months ago

              “Middle class” and “small yacht.” Most middle class people can’t even afford a house. This is something that costs more than a luxury car.

              • Cypher@lemmy.world
                7·
                4 months ago

                Yea no one in the middle class can afford a house, a couple of cars and a small yacht.

                It’s impossible without having billions in the bank!

          • ℍ𝕂-𝟞𝟝@sopuli.xyzEnglish
            11·
            4 months ago

            TBH might have been a bunch of middle class retirees who sold the family home up in England for like 800k, bought something smaller for two to live in in Spain, and a small sailing boat. I don’t think about those people as “rich”.

              • smb@lemmy.mlEnglish
                2·
                4 months ago

                i consider statistics to be a good tool in general - but of course only if used correctly (as with any tool, like using a hammer when you have to drill a hole might create a hole but more repair work would be needed and the hole would likely neither be of correct shape nor stability then)

                so use the median to determine the middle, not the average. (because when A robs B everything he has, the average of what both have does not change a single quantum but poverty was increased, and that happens since invention of colonisation and other crimes a f***ing LOT and it did not stop yet)

                so determine the middle class by median of what ppl earn/have over the whole world. if you limit to anything smaller than the world, you’re manipulating by maybe favoring robbers, betrayers, murderers and enslavers, so use the whole world median or you end up with lies only.

                as i noted colonisation and slavery, the wealth that had build upon such, is in fact just part of (historic) debt.

                well lets see, where i am when i guess the worldwide wealth median.

                I do not live paycheck-to-paycheck any more for more than a decade, i own a 22year old economic car ( that does not look shiny but the mrchsnic says its secure), but i own no property and pay rent for a 60m2 flat where i live solo. thus i am rich. i neither feel safe financially nor feel rich, nor would i really know how to buy a house or a yacht, but compared to the majority of people on the world, i think i am to be considered rich. I can decide to buy smaller things from my monthly (40h/week) income without the need of thinking, that maybe most of worlds population (the median) would have to save money for in advance or would buy on debt. This alone more than often already is a luxury of the rich: “just buy it (if it does not ruin you)”. However, all of my “luxury” would not exist if i wouldn’t try to save money or be near to ‘nothing’ if i had any children to take care for. a generation ago it was possible to build a house, have a car, pay children, pay a bit extra for your non-working wife so she can go shopping AND go to holiday once a year in the expensive season together with the kids by only ONE person doing the same working hours per week as i do today. I do not see this even partly possible today and i do not feel rich enough to be able to finance a child. am i as poor as i am rich just because of how bad the world had beend changed since? maybe. i guess because of the “wealth transfer” to the rich (where i already “profit” a bit from, but also are ripped off by it) all humans on average(!) are more poor than one or two generations ago, while only a very small fraction of the world actually really profits from that transfer.

                The more wealth the rich accumulate, the more quickly they spread more poverty day by day, and the more instability in general is created too. This is what i genuinely believe. But where exactly do i stand in this scenario, comparing myself with the median that i only can imagine what it probably is while all measurements for how rich or poor i am i come up with seem really unusable today.

                The by far more easy way is to say “i am NOT rich”, point with the finger at someone else who is driving in his roaring and shiny luxury car to his private jet that will bring him to wherever his captain has maneuvered his billionaires yacht to just to jump into the water there. thats an easy view: the others are rich, but not me. this would be an easy view, but could it also be true? i guess not.

      • jordanlund@lemmy.world
        14·
        4 months ago

        Well, a yacht is just a class of vessel. I think a lot of people are confusing them with LUXURY yachts which are way too big to be sunk by orchas.

        Here’s one for sale, $59,000. I could actually buy this, I mean, yeah, it’s from freakin’ 1984… but still.

    • sudo@lemmy.today
      7·
      4 months ago

      These scientists say they don’t intend to sink the boats but they’re definitely doing it on porpoise.

    • Waraugh@lemmy.dbzer0.com
      40·
      4 months ago

      A 29’ boat isn’t small, what kind of walk-in closet do you think people have? Your comment makes you seem really out of touch.

        • SpaceCowboy@lemmy.ca
          22·
          4 months ago

          A quick google suggests a single mast sailboat can be had for around $50K. Which is a lot of money for a hobby. But it’s insanely cheap if it’s your house.

          But how much does it cost to keep it at a marina per year? And repairs and such?

          Don’t worry not asking to prove you’re rich and need to be eaten or whatever. Wanna know how much money I need to be able to say “fuck it” and quit my job and live on a sailboat.

            • Don_alForno@feddit.orgDeutsch
              6·
              4 months ago

              I couldn’t do half of the DIY stuff that you seem to put it. Just here to say that sounds damn impressive.

              I guess you travel to follow warm weather? Or how is life in winter?

            • Cethin@lemmy.zipEnglish
              4·
              4 months ago

              What do you do for work? Your costs are low, but they aren’t zero. I imagine it’s nearly impossible to get work if you have to go out to your boat every day or you don’t have reliable internet.

              Also, is it possible to get/run AC on a boat your size? Florida sounds like hell without AC. I don’t think I could manage living there for long without it. I guess you can get in the water to cool off pretty easily though.

                • Sinthesis@lemmy.world
                  2·
                  4 months ago

                  After 25 years in tech I’m starting to look for my “out”. I have a ton of experience with electrical (signals/rf too), plumbing, mechanical, woodworking, finishing, engines, etc There isn’t much I can’t fix. As far as nautical experience goes, I’m a novice but I recently went through a small boat certification course and planning on being a “trailer sailor” for a couple years or more to build up experience. I grew up near Charleston SC harbor, and I think the ocean is calling me back.

                  A couple of questions; how do you find work or how does work find you? Do you have a home base where your tools are located or are you doing these jobs in “random” ports you travel to? (You can message me if you don’t want to share your industry secrets publicly 😉 )

                  /edit Found your blog so I got some reading to do.

          • LordGimp@lemm.ee
            5·
            4 months ago

            Dock fees generally range between $400-$800 a month, and that usually includes water and electricity. I think sewage is extra.

            Best way to think about marinas is mobile home parks plus. Most folks there are just normals tryna get by on the cheap. Very occasionally you’ll get some landlord or HOA Karen type that thinks their shit doesn’t stink, but it always does.

            Maintainence is the real killer for the wallet on a boat though. Mobile home units can’t sink, so maintaining the home isn’t as optional as it would be otherwise. You still get sea gypsies occasionally in floating wrecks anchored just off the docks, but that’s everywhere really.

          • Strykker@programming.dev
            5·
            4 months ago

            Depends on the marina, one of my local ones charge $50 per foot a year, plus membership of ~$600-$700 yearly. But this is on a river with no ocean access, not sure how that would change things.

            • SpaceCowboy@lemmy.ca
              5·
              4 months ago

              That’s actually very reasonable. Yeah I’m sure it’s way more money on like the French Riviera, but I don’t want to go to places like that.

              I gotta learn how to sail tho haha.

          • SreudianFlip@sh.itjust.works
            1·
            4 months ago

            Local classified right now has a 29 foot sloop with extra sails, recent bottom paint, and a 9hp outboard plus dinghy for $5700 CDN. It’s been up a while, you could bargain down, the seller seems motivated. It’s a 1978 boat so really skookum fiberglass on that.

            A mooring buoy costs around $1500 to plop down but sometimes you can get one second hand for less. (Every Canadian is entitled by citizenship to a mooring buoy or two.)

            An equivalent RV costs around $15k with nowhere to park.

            People who assume that they are going to buy stuff new are just locked into a class-based mindset.

        • VirtualOdour@sh.itjust.works
          7·
          4 months ago

          Yeah I’m too poor for a boat but I know a few people who live on them because they’re a cheap way to live a chill life. It’s very possible to be working class on s yacht, I’ve also known a few people who move and crew yachts so it’s very way for me to imagine the human tragedy these attacks can bring.

          I hope we can devise a technology to keep people and marine life safe.

      • chiliedogg@lemmy.world
        22·
        4 months ago

        A 29’ boat isn’t going to have a 29’ liveable area.

        First off, a boat narrows so much at the front that a 29’ boat is really closer to 25’ at best. Then it might be 10 feet wide, so you’re looking at about 250 square feet. Most of that is gonna be deck so cut that in half again if you want your living space to be out of the elements.

        When you go under the deck you might think there would be plenty of room, but you need to have fuel, engine, generator, bilge, etc.

        So in your remaining closet-sized space you need to be able to eat, sleep, cook, use the restroom, store your shit, entertain yourself, etc.

      • Strykker@programming.dev
        11·
        4 months ago

        A 29’ boat is absolutely tiny to live on. The overwhelming majority is taken up by things the boat needs to be a boat

      • Don_alForno@feddit.orgDeutsch
        11·
        4 months ago

        If they actually live on it instead of owning a house, I’d still not consider them part of the rich who should be eaten.

      • SreudianFlip@sh.itjust.works
        6·
        4 months ago

        Around here you can buy a serviceable 29-foot sailboat for $5k, and a mooring buoy for $1k. It’s cheaper than a van by the river FFS.

        People who live on sub-40-ft sailboats are usually just hanging in there. Source: that was nearly me before my fortunes changed slightly. Boats are underpriced because they are a lot of work.

        My sister is a corporate executive. Her walk in closet is objectively larger than a 29-ft live aboard. Hell her ensuite bathroom is bigger than that and she lives in a duplex. You are lacking real world context I think.

    • Aradina [She/They]@lemmy.mlEnglish
      22·
      4 months ago

      Your walk-in closet is larger,

      “I’m not that rich!” Thinks most people have a fucking walk in closet

      bruh

    • OhStopYellingAtMe@lemmy.world
      13·
      4 months ago

      It’s unfortunate that the orcas can’t tell the difference between rich assholes with yachts, and normal assholes with yachts.

      I guess maybe staying out of their tiny part of the ocean while they’re using it is the only thing a person with a yacht can do.

        • OhStopYellingAtMe@lemmy.world
          12·
          4 months ago

          That’s not a fair generalization.

          I own a house worth x amount of dollars, where “x” is average for a house in my area, and not even close to “rich” amount.

          If I sold my house and put that same “x” amount towards a seafaring houseboat of equal value (including all expenses for owning an oceanic home), I’m still not rich.

          If I sail that boat into the small, avoidable swimming grounds of an endangered species (only 50 members of this local group remain) and then whine when that species attacks my boat, then I’d be an asshole. But still not rich. Probably even further from it - since I’m sure insurance companies wouldn’t cover my stupidity.

          • AlolanYoda@mander.xyz
            3·
            4 months ago

            Wait, what do you mean only 50 living members remain? A quick (admittedly too quick) Google search yields the number 50000, did you forget a “thousand”? Or is the situation even more dire?

    • SupahRevs@lemmy.world
      9·
      4 months ago

      For more context. This was a Oceanis 393. so about $100k boat. And it was in the Strait of Gibralter. Not the poorest area of the world.

    • boyi@lemmy.sdf.org
      2·
      4 months ago

      do you mean to reply to a comment instead of the post? If yes, can you add a link to the comment for context?

    • werefreeatlast@lemmy.world
      7·
      4 months ago

      Yes Mr Sha, last name Moo, could you please sign on the dotted line? Next time you should think twice about swimming drunk.

    • Tudsamfa@lemmy.world
      4·
      4 months ago

      The ability to manipulate objects isn’t really that useful underwater, I feel, apart from being an unprecedented adaptation on the flipper and almost definitely coming at the cost of efficiency while swimming. Everything you want to mess around with as an orca can be transported with your mouth.

      Now, sonar loud enough to shatter human rib cages, that’s what’s going to be the next big step.

  • Etterra@lemmy.world
    25·
    4 months ago

    Because they know that if they kill anyone rich enough to afford a boat that some jackass will kill them back. So they keep it to property damage.

  • tal@lemmy.todayEnglish
    15·
    4 months ago

    I wonder how practical it’d be to have an underwater sound emitter to repel one. The use of sonar gets sometimes criticized for its impact on whales. You’d think that you could take advantage of that.

    kagis

    Probably not powerful enough. Looks like military sonar pulls down a lot of power:

    https://www.quora.com/How-do-submarines-surface-ships-produce-such-loud-active-sonar-sound-emissions-from-their-transducers

    The first ship I was on used a sonar system from the ‘60s. The system used the maximum amount of power, just short of causing the transducer (an underwater combination speaker and microphone) array to cavitate (boil the water). As you go deeper, it takes more power to cavitate, so submarine sonars were even more powerful (but seldom used, to keep from advertising their location). Our system used 288,000 watts (A powerful home stereo may use 250 watts, so this is like 1000 home stereos all going at the same time!) When the power supply for the amplifiers malfunctioned, it often erupted fireballs across the room (Our Division Officer was so frightened, after seeing one, that he refused to enter the room, or even come down the stairs to the room’s door!). In addition, besides the raw power, the signal can be electronically focused to go in a single direction, much like the powerful spotlights used for advertising (car dealerships, for example). This makes the signal strong enough, that you can bounce it off the bottom of the ocean and detect a submarine more than 40 miles away.

    The sound is so loud, that you can hear it IN THE AIR while near a pier, when the ship was over 1,000 feet away (several city blocks). For a nearby diver in the water, it would extremely painful. In Vietnam, the ships in-port would run their sonars 24 hours a day, to keep enemy divers away from the ships.

    Inside the ship, you could hear it, no matter where you were below decks, even in noisy places. Most of the crew hated it. Sometimes, we (the sonarmen) would light-off the system, with the most powerful beam pointed at the rest of the ship, at 6:00 AM for Reveille (“Damned %&$ sonarmen! *%#$%^%$!!!”).

  • Randomgal@lemmy.ca
    13·
    4 months ago

    I think the answer to this question is in their name tbh. Should have named them Panda Whales instead.