9/27/2004: Beached pygmy whale calf

[Undertoad]

Sad one here. This is a pygmy whale calf, and it is dying here.
Too young to survive, unweaned, two of them beached themselves
in Palm Beach Florida, for unknown reasons. Ahead of the storm.

It was put down; the woman here is just trying to comfort it.

[Pie]

It even looks sad -- poor thing.

[chrisinhouston]

Looks like 2 beached whales in that photo.

[mlandman]

We have discovered the secret ingredient to Gatorade.

[Guess]

that picture is interesting in so many different ways

[tw]

Now go to a major problem only recently discovered. Once whales could communicate maybe as much as half way across the ocean. But man is now dumping so much noise into the oceans that it already is known to cause damage to some whales brains. It is suspected that some noise sources are so loud that ocean mammals now become separated. This being especially problematic for the calves of whales who no longer can find their mother.

Most destructive is a new NATO sonar that is repeatedly suspected to cause mass beachings even 50 miles away. This frequency sonar is said to be the best sonar yet. However it uses the same frequencies that ocean mammals use - at power levels destructive to those animals. The Navy has agreed to limit their use of this sonar.

Other noise sources include noise created by new, larger ships. Yes, a secret to making shipping less costly is to produce less noise - put more energy into moving ships by producing less noise. However, ship technology is instead just producing more power for bigger ships. No major effort is known to reduce shipping noise on these larger ships. Dead mammals don't cost anything. Oil is still too cheap. Research and development costs money when MBAs are the primary decision makers.

And so we must ask why these whales are dying? Disease? Or man-made? The current thinking is that we cannot prove it is man-made. Therefore it must be from something else.

An old Star Trek story parodied the problem. Too many high warp spacecraft could disintegrate the fabric of space. There are always consequences to what we do. More power is never an ideal solution. Like it or not, the oceans are becoming a new treasured parkland that we must learn more about - or lose its benefits. Is this but a canary in the coalmine? Either we use science, or we do as George Jr does - consult the bible.

[jaclyn8700]

Originally Posted by chrisinhouston

Looks like 2 beached whales in that photo.

that's cold.

but true..

[footfootfoot]

Anyone remember that famous vid a few years back where they tried to blow up the dead whale?

They could probably get the job done here with an m–80 or two.

But the whale does look sad. Who knows what happened?

[Target]

Yeah I was going to use 'dumb' but that might offend some rednecks sisters.

Will you argue that people are more intelligent than whales? People do stupid things that cause themselves harm. Is it not imaginable that a creature of less intelligence might do the same thing?

Some animals that are considered to be highly intelligent kill their offspring. Is that a capability you have considered?

[garnet]

Originally Posted by Target

Will you argue that people are more intelligent than whales? People do stupid things that cause themselves harm. Is it not imaginable that a creature of less intelligence might do the same thing?

People are more intelligent in some ways than animals such as whales. No, a whale can't write a novel or program a computer, but there's a helluva lot of things animals can do that people can't. I'm still amazed at dogs and their sense of smell. It may not be that they are more intelligent than humans, but in that particular respect they are superior to us. I know almost zero about whales, but I'm guessing they're superior to humans in certain ways as well. To blame a whale beaching itself solely on the animal's "stupidity" is, in my opinion, unintelligent.

[Cyber Wolf]

Originally Posted by Target

Some animals that are considered to be highly intelligent kill their offspring. Is that a capability you have considered?

Intelligence has nothing to do with the ability, desire or perceived need to kill.

[Leah]

I'm with you there Brianna, I hate seeing any baby animal suffer so much. I love watching animal documentaries (always watching Animal Planet on Foxtel), but I still cringe when I see any baby animal being killed or dying, be it natural or caused my us horrible humans. Especially hate seeing baby elephants being killed or dying.
Poor little whale.

[chrisinhouston]

Can't that lady push the whale out in the surf and then climb on her. I saw that Whale Rider movie and it really worked!

[Bullitt]

Except in Whale rider, the person wasn't the whale sized being of the two...

[Trilby]

You know what? It's still really sad. Death is a natural, beautiful part of life, but I hate to see a baby anything die.