Tragedy of the sleeping blue whale killed by a ship

These heartbreaking images show the body of a majestic blue whale fatally injured as it slept in a busy shipping lane

How can they know for sure this whale was asleep and not just trying to get out of the way

“When a big ship hits a whale, the impact wouldn’t register. It’s like a tractor-trailer hitting a butterfly - you would feel nothing.

I doubt if there is any way to regulate shipping to prevent this from happening to these majestic mammels
fishwrecked.com...
www.thesun.co.uk...

Cran

reply to post by cranspace


Surely the ship had sonar? Didnt want to 'waste 'time going round it, if you ask me.

reply to post by cranspace

Aw man, sad indeed. The creature was probably over 50(guess) years old, since they live to be 80.
Can't they put sonar warnings or something liken to the deer warning devices they put on some cars?
Beep beep!!!!
This must not happen too often for it is the first I have ever heard.

Peace

reply to post by lacrimosa


Blue whales are incredibly rare, special and not much is known about migratory routes, diets, etc.

Their may be others, but that number is not many.

reply to post by speculativeoptimist

This must not happen too often for it is the first I have ever heard

No from what i have read this is happening a lot
Maybe more get run down than the Japanese hunt
This could be a big factor in the decline of whale numbers

Cran

reply to post by WanderingThe3rd


Who are you referring to? I cant find out anyone who used those words?

reply to post by cranspace


Happens alot with other types of whales. I remember a rather gruesome photo of either a humpback or sperm whale impaled on a Vancouver cruise ship. Heres the article. It does happen more than it is reported.

Whale Impaled by Cruise Ship.

If anybody is familiar with Carl Sagan, you most likely are very interested in whales. Whole languages, diversity of species, dietary differences and peaceful co-opperation amongst most species.

reply to post by cranspace


Perhaps you are right cranspace. I was digging a bit and found that usually whales are able to detect and avoid ships, but sometimes the ship routes go right thru the feeding grounds, and this is where the trouble is. As time moves on, more ships, more incidents I suppose.
Still a tragedy imo...

i bet if it was a small boat they would have missed it

Maybe instead of fishing for healthy whales in from I have seen waters that would normally be safe for them perhaps these whales that are injured and killed accidentally could at least be harvested.

These ships that do the damage are massive
Like this

One of these against a 150 tonne whale would be like

The world's biggest container ships are about 1,300 feet long - that's nearly 400 meters or the distance around an Olympic running track - with a maximum width of 180 feet (55 meters). Their engines weigh 2,300 tons, their propellers 130 tons, and there are twenty-one storeys between their bridge and their engine room. They can be operated by teams of just thirteen people and a sophisticated computer system and carry an astonishing 11,000 20-foot containers. If that number of containers were loaded onto a train it would need to be 44 miles or 71 kilometers long!

Rowing over a turd in a lake
The whale had no chance

Cran

Originally posted by UKmonster
Surely the ship had sonar? Didnt want to 'waste 'time going round it, if you ask me.

No, they wouldn't have SONAR, and it's not about being a waste of time. It's called basic physics. Have you ever seen the size of one of these cargo ships? They can't exactly turn on a dime.

Originally posted by UKmonster
reply to post by cranspace

 

Surely the ship had sonar? Didnt want to 'waste 'time going round it, if you ask me.

Large commercial ships use charts and depth sounders to avoid underwater obstacles and radar to avoid other ships.

As the op says a big vessel would simply be oblivious to a shallow uncharted obstacle.

Originally posted by navy_vet_stg3

Originally posted by UKmonster
Surely the ship had sonar? Didnt want to 'waste 'time going round it, if you ask me.

No, they wouldn't have SONAR, and it's not about being a waste of time. It's called basic physics. Have you ever seen the size of one of these cargo ships? They can't exactly turn on a dime.

Sonar does not work to detect whales. .
Because the whales body is soft tissue there is very little for the pings of active sonar pulses to reflect from it justs passes right through the body.

The only thing you hear from whales is there singing on passive sonar.

reply to post by ANNED

I'm a former SONAR Tech with the U.S. Navy. You can detect whales just fine with active SONAR. Telling the difference between a biological signature and something else is the first thing every Sonarman is taught. Passive, on the other hand, you are correct. All you get are the whale farts (among other things). However, these ships won't have a 53C or 53D on-board. They won't even have a 26BX system. No dome, nothing. It's a ship...not a sub hunter.

Rah rah, go man.

Way to kill rare wildlife in the name of progress.

I hope the whales win.


Posted Via ATS Mobile: m.abovetopsecret.com

Pssh that whale should have known better than to sleep in traffic. Waiting for the follow up blaming the whale for being intoxicated off of illegal drugs

All you get are the whale farts (among other things)

reply to post by navy_vet_stg3


Thats intresting enlighten me with these things

Cran