kill...Kill....KILL!!!!!!!!!!!!! (whale related)

**hop** · 08-26-2004, 08:49 PM

I just finished my USFS bird survey job and moved back to the wonderful world of whale research. First thing... get a call that transients are in front of Friday Harbor... so we get out on the water a bit later when they're near Halibut Island BC and find out that they're T18, T19, T19b, T19c, T20, and T21. It's eight years and three weeks since my first transient encounter, which included T20 and T21 (back when they were O20 and O21) and started at the exact same spot. Even the weather was the same...
Anyways, they do exactly what they did before, go around Sidney Island towards Sallas Rocks and proceed to rip apart some sort of marine mammal. Bloody red fleshy bits in the mouth, birds picking up scraps, the whole deal. Even a reverse surfacing, which is indicative of a submarine dismemberment.
The whales then started travelling south towards Cordova Bay, Victoria.

Back at the dock we ran into some other whale nerd friends that had retrieved a perfectly intact set of harbor porpoise lungs and heart. There were a few teeth scratches on the surface of the lungs but otherwise they were pristine. A lung doctor was at the harbor and he got all lung-nerdy on us, going as far as to blow air into the lungs to inflate them (fucking cool). I'll try to post some video of that...

edit: try this http://www.eengoedidee.nl/videoz/dow...tTM228AAFWCsfk

notice the size difference between the deflated lungs after two human breaths. They're nowhere near full capacity! Those red streaks are killer whale teeth marks. It's amazing how surgically precise they can be when they want to.

And before WC says it.... yes, I'm a nerd.

**basom** · 08-26-2004, 08:57 PM

I FUCKING LOVE IT WHEN DUDES GET ALL LUNG NERDY ON ME! FKNA, WOOT, AND ALL THAT SHIT.

seriously, thats wicked fucking cool.

**Sublime** · 08-26-2004, 09:21 PM

That's sweet i'm an animal nerd to.

But I have to ask what the fuck is that in your avatar? it looks like a giant vagina.

**phUnk** · 08-26-2004, 09:33 PM

Originally posted by Sublime
it looks like a giant vagina.

You've had run-ins with some interesting looking vaginas in your life, I take it.

**TJ.Brk** · 08-26-2004, 10:07 PM

Originally posted by phUnk
You've had run-ins with some interesting looking vaginas in your life, I take it.

And you haven't Phunkmeister

zing

**mtbakerskier** · 08-26-2004, 10:26 PM

Damn, Adam you got to be the first hippy to ever get stoked on the killing of mamals

**ak_powder_monkey** · 08-26-2004, 10:32 PM

So what your saying is you saw some orcas kill a bunch of seals and someone found some lungs and was blowing them up sounds fun and yeah WTF is your avatar?

**phUnk** · 08-26-2004, 11:18 PM

Originally posted by TJ.Brk
And you haven't Phunkmeister zing

Man, I laughed so hard I woke up your wife.

**ak_powder_monkey** · 08-26-2004, 11:22 PM

Originally posted by phUnk
Man, I laughed so hard I woke up your wife.

I laughed so hard at that I woke up your mom

**TJ.Brk** · 08-26-2004, 11:25 PM

Originally posted by phUnk
Man, I laughed so hard I woke up your wife.

Phunky I told you that I had no problem with you banging my ex wife. By the way we parted on good terms. But she did tell me that the "Austin Powers Peter Pumping Enlarger" was working miricles with you. Keep the pumping strong my friend.

**TJ.Brk** · 08-26-2004, 11:27 PM

Originally posted by ak_powder_monkey
I laughed so hard at that I woke up your mom

Dude, don't tell him that his Granny was there with you and about the video. The poor guy has enough stress in his life.

By the way some of the digitals I took didn't come out right with granny. Same time next Thursday maybe?

**Telenater** · 08-27-2004, 12:31 AM

Originally posted by Sublime
But I have to ask what the fuck is that in your avatar? it looks like a giant vagina.

A giant viagina that washed up on shore dead after a sonar test ruptured it's internals....

**vinzclortho** · 08-27-2004, 08:34 AM

Originally posted by hop
It's eight years and three weeks since my first transient encounter

wow.

my first really like....hardcore transient encounter was at a Fleet ATM at the corner of Mass ave/Boylston. This dude was facked out his banana on...whatever...and just staring at me. I start my atm transaction and the dude says "I'm gonna fuck you up." just as he says it, his pants fall down reavealing his package and he then falls over into a trash can. It was actually pretty damn funny though the random girl standing next to me was horrified and made me stand next to her until she completed her transaction at the ATM since she was scared of the "transient".

Didn't see any lungs or anything....though I think he had some bite marks on his face maybe. That was harsh.

**phUnk** · 08-27-2004, 09:30 AM

Originally posted by vinzclortho
wow.

my first really like....hardcore transient encounter was at a Fleet ATM at the corner of Mass ave/Boylston. This dude was facked out his banana on...whatever...and just staring at me. I start my atm transaction and the dude says "I'm gonna fuck you up." just as he says it, his pants fall down reavealing his package and he then falls over into a trash can. It was actually pretty damn funny though the random girl standing next to me was horrified and made me stand next to her until she completed her transaction at the ATM since she was scared of the "transient".

Didn't see any lungs or anything....though I think he had some bite marks on his face maybe. That was harsh.

Bwa! 9:40am MST and I'm calling POTD.

**PlayHarder** · 08-27-2004, 09:36 AM

the dude says "I'm gonna fuck you up." just as he says it, his pants fall down reavealing his package and he then falls over into a trash can.

Hop's story is really cool, but for some reason this made me blow coffee out my nose.

**vinzclortho** · 08-27-2004, 10:13 AM

True story!

I actually lived right around the corner so I went to the bank when they opened on Monday and asked the guard if I could watch the security footage from Saturday night. He told me I couldn't. I'm hoping he watched it and had a good laugh. It was ballsy.

**Tippster** · 08-27-2004, 11:02 AM

So THAT's where you learned and earned your mad steeze...

**hop** · 08-27-2004, 01:27 PM

my avatar is a Baird's beaked whale (Berardius bairdii) head that has been removed from the rest of the carcass and whale-nerd extraordinaire Ken Balcomb is digging for the ear bones to try and determine if acoustic trauma (indicative of loud noises underwater...aka SONAR) was a possible cause of death. This was at 2nd beach, La Push WA in Jan a few years ago. The rest of the carcass is still around there somewhere if you care to look for it.

Does a video clip have to be on a website somewhere to post it or can it be direct from my computer?

**vinzclortho** · 08-27-2004, 01:45 PM

gots to be hosted.

try this'n here I guess: http://www.eengoedidee.nl/videoz/

**summit** · 08-27-2004, 01:55 PM

Originally posted by hop
whale-nerd extraordinaire Ken Balcomb is digging for the ear bones to try and determine if acoustic trauma (indicative of loud noises underwater...aka SONAR) was a possible cause of death.

Just for the whale nerd:

Aboard SSN-772 earlier that week:
"Con Sonar, biological bearing 315, range is now 500m"
"Sonar Con, ping the shit outa that biological. We'll show those greenpeacers what's what!"
"Con Sonar, aye... let's beat Norway's record!"

**Game Over** · 08-27-2004, 02:39 PM

I wanna see the video.

**Viva** · 08-27-2004, 03:00 PM

Originally posted by hop
whale-nerd extraordinaire Ken Balcomb is digging for the ear bones to try and determine if acoustic trauma (indicative of loud noises underwater...aka SONAR) was a possible cause of death.

Are the ear bones delicate enough to be damage by sonar? What sort of trauma do you look for and how do you extrapolate the degree of acoustic insult? How about the other ear structures?

Edit- How have whales been affected by pollution?

**Tippster** · 08-27-2004, 03:21 PM

"Acoustic Insult" HEH!

You should meet my mother-in-law...

**hop** · 08-27-2004, 07:14 PM

Beaked whales in particular are susceptible to acoustic trauma caused by loud underwater noises. Here's a hypothetical situation including a very basic lesson in whale nerdology: When whales dive, most of the air is forced out of the lungs and into an area by the blowhole, near the ears. Whales are deep in some undewater canyon, and some blast of sound (seismic, sonar, whatever) comes through the area. The sounds reverberates off the canyon walls and amplifies. The sound also will bounce off the air being held in the head of the whale, and if it is strong enough it can cause massive internal bleeding in the areas near the trapped air, such as ears and brain (necropsies done on fresh specimens have had bruising on the lungs where the ribs are). It would be like being in a closed room and having a sonic boom go off right next to you.
Being acoustic-based animals (we are vision-based), they would be pretty much fucked if this happened. It might not be enough to cause instant death (but then again, if they were a mile deep and had their heads explode, we'd never know) but we have noticed signs similar to the bends, probably caused by a very rapid return to the surface. So if the sonar didn't kill them outright, or the effects of the bends didn't, then having their #1 sense knocked out would probably take care of them. Keep in mind that these animals (like all wild animals) must always be in tip-top shape to live, otherwise something will come along and eat them.

This hypothetical situation (beaked whales stranding during/after navy sonar exercises) has happened a few times, most notably March 15, 2000 in the Bahamas, and since then in Greece and the Canary Islands. On May 5, 2003, the USS Shoup was using sonar in Haro Strait WA within two miles of J pod, who were exhibiting signs of distress and disorientation. An unusually large number of harbor porpoises stranded in the days after the Shoup passed by.