NZ Dolphin guides stranded whales
the_dolph...@msn.com
found at
http://news.ninemsn.com.au/article.aspx?id=174041
Article Extract:-
NZ dolphin guides stranded whales
Wednesday Mar 12 18:00 AEDT
AP - A playful New Zealand dolphin used to swimming round humans has
amazed conservation workers by guiding two distressed whales back to
sea away from likely death on a beach.
The dolphin led the two pygmy sperm whales 200 metres along the beach
and through a channel to the open sea, Department of Conservation
worker Malcolm Smith said on Wednesday.
The two whales, a mother and her young calf, were found stranded on
Mahia Beach, on North Island's east coast on Monday morning, Smith
said.
"We worked for over an hour to try to get them back out to sea ... but
they kept getting disorientated and stranding again" after swimming
into a large sandbar just off the shore, he said.
"They obviously couldn't find their way back past it to the sea,"
Smith said.
Four attempts by volunteers to refloat the pair failed and it was
becoming highly likely they would have to be euthanised, he said.
Then the dolphin, named Moko by local residents, swam up.
"It was looking like it was going to be a bad outcome for the whales
which was very disappointing and then Moko just came along and fixed
it."
Smith said it was quite possible Moko had heard the whales calling.
"The whales were ... quite distressed. They had arched their backs and
were calling to one another, but as soon as the dolphin turned up they
submerged into the water and followed her," he said.
"She obviously gave them enough guidance to leave the area because we
haven't seen them since," Smith said.
"The things that happen in nature never cease to amaze me."
Moko returned to the beach shortly afterward.
The playful dolphin swam straight back close to shore and joined in
water games with local residents, he added.
http://news.ninemsn.com.au/article.aspx?id=174041
Regards,
The Dolphin Mermaid
Fred Williams
Many, if not all< whale strandings are due to various navy's using loud
sonar. The whales will not go back to the ocean for a couple of
reasons, 1. The loud sonar is still active and they will risk damage to
their ears if they go back, or 2. Their ears have already been damaged
and they have no sense of balance or directon.
In this case, it wasn't the sandbar confusing them, it was possibly
blocking most of the sound and they would stay in the lagoon where it
was safe. Maybe the sonar exercise stopped and they could go back.
During whale strandings it is wise for humans to always stick their
ears underwater for a while and listen!!! It might provide a good clue
as to why the whales are risking death to get out of the water. Whales
are intelligent creature and they know sonar better than we do. It is
ridiculous to think they could become disoriented by a sandbar. Look
for another cause... better yet Listen for another cause... even after
the whales have returned to the sea for a while.
If you have the equipment, bring a hydrophone and a recording device.
Drop it in the water and see what you can pick up.
--
Regards,
Fred
<http://www.fredwilliams.ca/thesecretofmoney.html>
the_dolph...@msn.com
>
> - Show quoted text -
Greetings,
You could B barking up the wrong tree, Fred.
Sure Navy Sonar is powerful and often the cause of MASS Strandings of
Whales and I cannot count this out as a "possible cause" of the two
Whales stranding at Mahia Beach.
I tend to think more along the lines of a predator such as an ORCA
mentioned in a prior post (mentioned to have attacked sperm Whales) as
the "possible cause" of the Mother Whale and her Calf taking refuge in
the "first possible place". There could have been a Cookie Cutter
Shark about ... who knows? There could have been painful noise
pollution to make the Whales take refuge in a place that they can
enter and logically can exit again but not in reality due to distress
caused by something or another. I cannot say what caused the Whales
to enter a risky waterway. I cannot tell you why only a few Dolphins
go up the creek here whilst many others don't. I can only guess that
Whales coming into Sydney Harbour are returning to a risky waterway
knowing it shows Whale respect and no interference.
I doubt that the Whales in NZ had serious sonar damage as I think
Malcolm Smith (Department of Conservation) would have noticed this and
not tried his heart out to help the Whales over and over. Moko the
Dolphin came to help the distressed Whales at a time when Malcolm had
done all he could ... I'm pleased he did his part until Moko took
over. Moko was obviously able to communicate with the Whales somehow
which makes me think that they were Whales in distress and not ill
Whales. I believe that the Dolphin and Whales were vocal when the
Whales were guided back to sea by the Dolphin.
There are many possible causes for the Whales to have become
distressed and stranded but I truely think that the Whale brought her
calf into the lagoon to seek refuge from resident Orca ... Resident
Orca being the most dangerous of all as they are not only aggressive
but also territorial.
Here's some interesting further reading on Orca that are "Residents of
New Zealand's Coast"
http://www.teara.govt.nz/EarthSeaAndSky/SeaLife/Orcas/1/en
I have copied a couple of paragraphs from the webpage for you ...
An eye for an eye patch
New Zealander Ingrid Visser spotted a unique identifying feature of
the orca. She was the first researcher in the world to systematically
photograph the white eye patches of 98 orcas, demonstrating that
individuals can be reliably identified in this way.
Populations and distribution
As a result of preliminary DNA analysis by New Zealander Ingrid
Visser, it is now established that there are probably three resident
populations in New Zealand: one off the North Island, one off the
South Island, and a third group that spends its time in both regions.
Between 1992 and 1999, Visser has counted a total of 167 individual
orcas around New Zealand. It is not yet known whether these separate
groups of orcas interbreed. Nor is it clear whether some arrive from
outside the New Zealand region, but this is possible; animals in pods
seen off the Bay of Islands in 1997 and Whāngārei in 2001 had the
slate grey colouring of Antarctic orcas, rather than the jet black
pigmentation associated with New Zealand ones.
http://www.teara.govt.nz/EarthSeaAndSky/SeaLife/Orcas/1/en
Hopefully we have now covered all possible causes of the two whales
stranding and can move onto some more interesting intelligent talk on
what this story highlights. It is a story of creatures helping one
another and displaying characteristics that we would call humanity.
Intelligence is not the only attribute that humans think they are
unique for, there are also communication abilities, community values,
compassion and self awareness, etc etc. All of these things have now
been proven in this story by Moko the Whale Watching Dolphin (not to
be confused with Sebastian ... The Whale Washing Dolphin in the movie
"Shark Tale"). Thank You Malcolm and neighbour (whom alerted Malcolm
of the stranded Whales) and of course to Moko and the Whales. This is
a great story that will surely be discussed and referred to in the
future.
Regards,
The Dolphin Mermaid
Fred Williams
In the prior post, I mentioned that they have attacked Blue Whales but
I know of no attacks on Sperm Whales, although I would suppose it
possible.
> There could have been a Cookie Cutter
> Shark about ... who knows? There could have been painful noise
> pollution to make the Whales take refuge in a place that they can
> enter and logically can exit again but not in reality due to distress
> caused by something or another. I cannot say what caused the Whales
> to enter a risky waterway. I cannot tell you why only a few Dolphins
> go up the creek here whilst many others don't. I can only guess that
> Whales coming into Sydney Harbour are returning to a risky waterway
> knowing it shows Whale respect and no interference.
>
> I doubt that the Whales in NZ had serious sonar damage as I think
> Malcolm Smith (Department of Conservation) would have noticed this and
> not tried his heart out to help the Whales over and over.
Whales don't have to have been damaged to want to run away from loud
noises. Humans do the same thing. Whales are very intelligent and
don't suicide en mass for silly reasons. An Orca can pursue them right
up to the beach. We've seen Orcas taking seals off the beach, so they
could certainly follow another whale there.
> Moko the
> Dolphin came to help the distressed Whales at a time when Malcolm had
> done all he could ... I'm pleased he did his part until Moko took
> over. Moko was obviously able to communicate with the Whales somehow
> which makes me think that they were Whales in distress and not ill
> Whales.
I would agree with that, yes. I'm not 100% certain, but I think in the
vast majority of cases of whales beaching, it's distress. I also think
the distress is not a natural cause, but an artificial, human generated
cause, navy sonar.
> I believe that the Dolphin and Whales were vocal when the
> Whales were guided back to sea by the Dolphin.
>
It's possible, but I'm wondering if the message was more of an "all
clear" rather than "guidance". Whales don't suddenly get amnesia or
forget where they are. They don't suddenly loose the ability to find
the ocean and need a dolphin to show them. It just doesn't make sense.
Floyd L. Davidson
>
> Whales don't have to have been damaged to want to run away from loud
>noises. Humans do the same thing. Whales are very intelligent and
>don't suicide en mass for silly reasons.
There is *no* evidence, after at least three decades of
attempts to produce some, that whales are "very
intelligent". They appear to be about as smart as a
cow... which is the dumbest animal in a typical farm
yard.
>An Orca can pursue them right
>up to the beach. We've seen Orcas taking seals off the beach, so they
>could certainly follow another whale there.
That is ignorance! We have indeed seen Orcas chase
little seals right up onto the beach. Of course the
seal is very small, and one bite from a full sized Orca
and the seal is done for. Whales on the other hand are
large, and cannot be killed the way seals are; hence the
Orca has to dive deep hit the whale hard... a tactic
that mother whales avoid by taking their young into
shallow water to protect them from Orcas.
It would seriously help your analysis of these animals
if you would actually learn about them rather than
fantasizing along with Watson's maniac racists.
>> Moko the
>> Dolphin came to help the distressed Whales at a time when Malcolm had
>> done all he could ... I'm pleased he did his part until Moko took
>> over. Moko was obviously able to communicate with the Whales somehow
>> which makes me think that they were Whales in distress and not ill
>> Whales.
>
> I would agree with that, yes. I'm not 100% certain, but I think in the
>vast majority of cases of whales beaching, it's distress. I also think
>the distress is not a natural cause, but an artificial, human generated
>cause, navy sonar.
>
>> I believe that the Dolphin and Whales were vocal when the
>> Whales were guided back to sea by the Dolphin.
>>
> It's possible, but I'm wondering if the message was more of an "all
>clear" rather than "guidance". Whales don't suddenly get amnesia or
>forget where they are. They don't suddenly loose the ability to find
>the ocean and need a dolphin to show them. It just doesn't make sense.
Apparently that is *exactly* what happens...
--
Floyd L. Davidson <http://www.apaflo.com/floyd_davidson>
Ukpeagvik (Barrow, Alaska) fl...@apaflo.com
Fred Williams
> Fred Williams <uncl...@webruler.com> wrote:
>>
>> Whales don't have to have been damaged to want to run away
>> from loud
>>noises. Humans do the same thing. Whales are very intelligent and
>>don't suicide en mass for silly reasons.
>
> There is *no* evidence, after at least three decades of
> attempts to produce some, that whales are "very
> intelligent". They appear to be about as smart as a
> cow... which is the dumbest animal in a typical farm
> yard.
>
Not at all. Whales have brains bigger than humans. For a long time so
called "experts" said that humans are smarter than other animals
because we have convolutions in our brains, well, surprise, whales have
more numerous and deeper convolutions.
These days, we know more about brains and brain functions. We know
what parts of the brain are for what purposes. It turns out that all
the parts of the brain that correspond to conscious thought in humans
are actually more highly developed in the cetacean. From brain
morphology alone, Cetaceans would be expected to be more intelligent
than we are ourselves.
Nature wouldn't evolve such huge, magnificent brains and then no have
the whales use them. That never happens in nature. Brains evolve when
the creature needs to use them for making decisions. Cetacean brains
are processing huge amounts of data, mostly auditory, in their
conscious thoughts. They also use significant amounts of brain power
in processing social interactions, family relations, and so on. In
short, they probably love one another.
>>An Orca can pursue them right
>>up to the beach. We've seen Orcas taking seals off the beach, so they
>>could certainly follow another whale there.
>
> That is ignorance! We have indeed seen Orcas chase
> little seals right up onto the beach. Of course the
> seal is very small, and one bite from a full sized Orca
> and the seal is done for. Whales on the other hand are
> large, and cannot be killed the way seals are; hence the
> Orca has to dive deep hit the whale hard... a tactic
> that mother whales avoid by taking their young into
> shallow water to protect them from Orcas.
>
The orca doesn't have to kill a whale to eat it. In the attack on the
Great Blue Whale that I saw on television, a pack of Ocras were tearing
huge strips of blubber from the side of the Great Blue while it was
trying to swim away from them. It died later. They were not diving
deeply and could have done the same thing in shallow water.
> It would seriously help your analysis of these animals
> if you would actually learn about them rather than
> fantasizing along with Watson's maniac racists.
>
If you're referring to the Sea Shepard Society, you're delusional.
>> I'm wondering if the message was more of an
>> "all
>>clear" rather than "guidance". Whales don't suddenly get amnesia or
>>forget where they are. They don't suddenly loose the ability to find
>>the ocean and need a dolphin to show them. It just doesn't make
>>sense.
>
> Apparently that is *exactly* what happens...
>
It makes no sense at all. There has to be a better explanation. Like
when it was found that military sonar was driving them onto the
beaches. We should have known that whales wouldn't swim up to a beach
and strand themselves for no reason. In time we learned that the 170
or 180 dB noise levels would damage their hearing and sonar and
eventually kill them. It made perfect sense that when this happens
their only defence would be to get out of the water, which is what they
did.
It would be a negative survival trait for whales to do this except to
avoid a strong life threatening phenomenon. Without human
intervention, it is unlikely that they would develop this habit that
represents such a danger to their very lives. In the case of navy
sonar, the beach represents a less painful death. So they beach
themselves having no other choice, perhaps hoping that humans will
eventually figure it out and stop being such a**holes.