"For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but wanting to have their ears tickled, they will accumulate for themselves teachers in accordance to their own desires, and will turn away their ears from the truth and will turn aside to myths." Northwoods is a ministry dedicated to refreshing Christians and challenging them to search for the truth in Christianity, politics, sociology, and science
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Sailors rescued after orca pod rams into yacht off Spain’s coast
Two sailors were rescued in Spain by the Spanish coast guard on Monday after a pod of orcas repeatedly rammed into their yacht.
The incident took place at 2 p.m. local time, two nautical miles from the Basque coastal town of Deba in northern Spain.
According to the Sydney Morning Herald, the coast guard rescued the two sailors after they sent out a mayday distress call. They were both taken “safe and sound” to the port of Getaria. The pair were said to be “shocked, but unharmed.”
Rescuers noted that such incidents are “uncommon” so far north in the Atlantic and said they had not been called to assist on an orca attack in the Basque Country before.
Orcas are more active farther south in the Strait of Gibraltar, which is also referred to as “orca alley.”
2:36
Cases of orcas attacking boats on the rise
Last August, a pod of orcas rammed a sailboat and bit off chunks of the ship’s rudder off the coast of northwestern Spain, prompting a bungled rescue mission that resulted in one of the boaters being seriously injured.
The attack occurred near the coast of Galicia, when two Belgian nationals sailing through the Bay of Biscay were approached by the orca pod. Similar to other attacks, the killer whales rammed the ship’s rudder, leaving the vessel immobilized.
The man and woman on board called the Spanish maritime rescue service for help and authorities deployed a rescue tugboat to their location, Reuters reported. During the towing manoeuvre, the woman seriously injured her hand and needed to be evacuated by helicopter to the hospital.
The incident occurred in Moroccan waters in the Strait of Gibraltar, Spain’s maritime rescue service told Reuters, where an unknown number of orcas began ramming a small, 15-metre sailing yacht.
Two people were on board the vessel, called the Alboran Cognac, and they radioed for help. The unnamed boaters reported feeling sudden blows to the hull and rudder of the ship before their vessel started taking on water.
A nearby oil tanker redirected to their location, picked up the two boaters and transported them to Gibraltar. The Alboran Cognac was left adrift and eventually sank, Reuters reports.
1:59
Orcas strike again: Yacht sinks in the Strait of Gibraltar
Since 2020, the Atlantic Orca Working Group has documented more than 700 interactions between orcas and boats around the Iberian Peninsula. Despite the surge in “disruptive” behaviour, its underlying cause remains a mystery to researchers.
According to the working group, orcas aren’t mistaking rudders for prey.
“Orcas don’t confuse the rudder with anything, they know what it is, how it moves and what effect it has when touching it. The speed of the ship and the resistance of the rudder cause it to persist in action,” researchers write.
If an orca starts interacting with your boat, the researchers recommend stopping the ship and its engine and letting go of the rudder. This can cause the orcas to “drop their interest, ceasing the interaction, in most cases.”
Over a week after she was filmed hopping a fence to taunt a tiger at a New Jersey zoo, a 24-year-old woman has been charged with trespassing.
In a statement released Monday, the Bridgeton Police Department said the woman entered a restricted area adjacent to the Bengal tiger’s enclosure at the Cohanzick Zoo. She reached her hand into the cage before quickly pulling it back when the animal reacted aggressively.
The woman, identified as Zyair J. Dennis, was charged with defiant trespassing on Friday.
Police said Dennis also entered the restricted area of a bear enclosure during her visit to the Cohanzick Zoo on Aug. 18. Authorities said “there was similar video depicting the same scenario” near the fence to the bear cage.
In footage from the incident involving the zoo’s tiger, the animal is seen pacing back and forth while Dennis stands on the other side of a wire fence. When the woman pushes her hand through the fence links, the tiger surges forward and onto the barrier at the provocation.
To get to the position in front of the tiger enclosure, Dennis passed a sign warning guests not to approach.
Anything that could go wrong, did go wrong....
Woman injured after orcas ram another boat off Spain’s coast
A pod of orcas rammed a sailboat and bit off chunks of the ship’s rudder off the coast of northwestern Spain, prompting a bungled rescue mission that resulted in the one of the boaters being seriously injured.
The incident was the latest example of orcas attacking boats around the Iberian peninsula, a phenomenon that scientists noticed a steep uptick in around 2020. Hundreds of attacks have been reported since, logged by the Atlantic Orca Working Group, which studies the Iberian orcas. It’s unclear why the orcas are attacking ships, but theories range from vengeance against humans to hunting practice for young killer whales.
The latest attack occurred Sunday near the coast of Galicia, when two Belgian nationals sailing through the Bay of Biscay were set upon by a pod of orcas. Similar to other attacks, the killer whales rammed the ship’s rudder, leaving the vessel immobilized.
Cases of orcas attacking boats on the rise
The man and woman on board called the Spanish maritime rescue service for help around 4 p.m. and authorities deployed a rescue tugboat to their location, Reuters reports. During the towing manoeuvre, the woman seriously injured her hand and needed to be evacuated by helicopter to the hospital.
The couple on board spoke to Belgian news outlet HLN and provided more details about their ordeal.
Wim Vandenhende, 43, and Dana Huens, 36, said they were sailing home from Greece in their yacht, the Amidala, when a pod of orcas began pushing and shoving their rudder.
“My steering wheel suddenly started making very strange movements,” Vandenhende said. “I also felt that the boat was being pushed.”
“When I looked to the side, I suddenly saw an orca surface next to our boat,” he added. “If I had stuck out my hand, I could have just touched it.”
Vandenhende tried to steer away from the animals to no avail. He felt about three or four more blows against the rudder and after that, the steering device was left useless.
“Without a rudder,” Vandenhende said, “the only thing we did was turn in circles.”
In an image from a video provided by The Ocean Race, an orca moves along a rudder of the Team JAJO entry in The Ocean Race on Thursday, June 22, 2023, as the boat approached the Strait of Gibraltar. A pod of killer whales bumped one of the boats in an endurance sailing race, part of a growing trend of sometimes aggressive interactions with Iberian orcas. No one was injured. The Ocean Race via AP
The couple knew that orcas had been ramming boats in the area and had already discussed their plan of what to do in the event of an attack. They called the Spanish maritime rescue service, which immediately responded.
It took about an hour for the rescue tugboat to reach them. When they arrived, rescuers threw over a tow line to attach to the couple’s boat, but Huens’ hand got caught between the tow line and the ship. Her hand was crushed.
“A rescue helicopter was called in, which took my wife with it,” Vandenhende said. “I stayed on the sailboat, which was towed to a harbour. Due to the wind and the rough sea, the towing lines broke twice.”
The maritime rescue service told Reuters that the operation was hampered by adverse weather, with winds up to 65 km/h and waves up to three metres tall. It took about five hours to tow the damaged sailboat back to port.
The orca attack left the Amidala with extensive damage, though thankfully it didn’t take on water, Vandenhende told HLN.
“The damage is considerable,” he said. “Pieces have been bitten out of the rudder.”
Would that be like biting the tail of a shark to the whales?
A rare Bronze Age jar was accidentally smashed to pieces at a museum in Israel when a curious four-year-old boy got too close while inspecting the 3,500-year-old artifact.
The Hecht Museum in Haifa, Israel said the jar was created between 2200 and 1500 BC. It was likely used to carry or store substances like wine or olive oil during an era predating biblical royalty King David and King Solomon.
As part of the museum’s mission to display ancient artifacts in a manner accessible to all, the crockery was not housed in glass or behind a protective barrier.
The father of the young boy told the Guardian his son was curious about the jar’s contents from where it was on display near the museum’s entrance. During their visit this week, the four-year-old reached for the priceless jar and it “tipped over and fell,” he said.
The 3,500-year-old jar was broken by a curious four-year-old boy visiting the museum with his family in August 2024. Hecht Museum
“My initial reaction was denial,” the father, Alex, admitted.
He said the sight of the broken jar made the young boy cry. As the family stared at the broken pieces, Alex said he felt shocked and angry over his son’s actions. He’d been certain the destruction of the jar would come with legal or financial repercussions for his family, or at the very least, get them banned from the museum.
Instead, the father said museum officials “invited us to visit again.” They were also offered a guided tour of the building.
Inbal Rivlin, director of Hecht Museum, said the boy broke the vase accidentally, and the situation is being dealt with as such.
“There are instances where display items are intentionally damaged, and such cases are treated with great severity, including involving the police. In this case, however, this was not the situation,” she said. “The jar was accidentally damaged by a young child visiting the museum, and the response will be accordingly.”
Rivlin said conservationists are working to piece the jar back together and restore its original shape. When the jar is fixed and returned to its place in the museum’s display, it will likely remain without a protective barrier.
“The museum believes that there is a special charm in experiencing an archaeological find without any obstructions,” Rivlin explained. “And despite the rare incident with the jar, the Hecht Museum will continue this tradition.”
The Israeli news outlet Ynet said the jar was found in excavations in Samaria, the central region of Israel, and has been on display at the museum for 35 years.
The pottery was considered a rare archaeological find because it was intact, unlike most similar jars, which are discovered already broken in pieces.
There's a new trend in the oceans that may be worrying some boaters. It involves killer whales. In recent weeks, there have been several stories of orcas going after boats, and in some cases, sinking them. This has left people wondering whether this is the dawn of a killer whale uprising, or simply orcas playing their newest game. Mike Armstrong explains – Jul 22, 2023
The incident happened in the Strait of Gibraltar last week, when a pod of orcas set their sights on the Grazie Mamma II, a vessel owned by Polish touring company Morskie Mile.
In a translated Facebook post, the company said the group of whales attacked the boat “for 45 minutes ..causing major damage and leakage.”
“The crew is safe, unharmed and sound,” the post assured readers, but the boat itself sank at the entrance to Tanger-Med, a Moroccan port.
It’s just the latest in an ever-increasing trend of the animals attacking and damaging boats off the coast of Portugal and Spain.
Orcas have been targeting ships in the region since 2020 and each year sees more and more attacks.
Marine scientists are still trying to determine what is causing the uptick in orca attacks, but there’s no question there’s been a sizable increase in these incidents. Over the past two years, killer whale research group Atlantic Orca Working Group has found these events have tripled, with more than 200 in 2022 compared with 52 incidents in 2020.
One intriguing aspect of the attacks is that the orcas primarily target smaller boats — those measuring less than 49 feet tend to be a favourite for the whales.
Earlier this year, biologist and wildlife conservationist Jeff Corwin told CBS News that the behaviour boils down the “incredible intelligence” of orcas and he believes older whales are teaching their young pod members these destructive tendencies.
“What we’re seeing is adapted behaviour. We’re learning about how they actually learn from their environment and then take those skill sets and share them and teach them to other whales,” he said.
Some researchers have theorized that a single, revenge-obsessed orca is teaching others to attack boats after she was injured by one in the past, but not everyone is convinced by this theory.
Rather, Destremau told the outlet he thinks parent orcas might be teaching their young how to hunt using boats as the learning prop.
“If I was a parent orca, I’m not going to touch my living stock, because my living stock is low, so why not train them on our boats?” Destremau said. “For them, the rudder looks like a fin! [It] moves like a fin, and you can play and push and grab it. And, as soon as the rudder is destroyed, they disappear.”
Alfredo López Fernandez, an orca researcher at the Atlantic Orca Working Group, told Live Science that the watercraft assaults might also be a new fad for the animals, encouraged by juvenile whales.
“We do not interpret that the orcas are teaching the young, although the behaviour has spread to the young vertically, simply by imitation, and later horizontally among them, because they consider it something important in their lives,” López Fernandez said.
Most researchers agree, however, that these attacks aren’t malevolent or a direct attempt to harm humans. The majority of the interactions between the boats and whales have involved the animals bumping the vessels but not causing serious damage.
That said, a number of boats have sunk to the sea floor in the past year after they were badly damaged. Other boats were stranded at sea and required a tow back to port after the whales impeded their ability to sail.
“This yacht was the most wonderful thing in maritime sailing for all of us. Longtime friendships formed on board,” wrote Morskie Mile in a eulogy to their lost vessel. It said, however, that upcoming cruises in the Canary Islands would go ahead.
Port Metro Vancouver is the largest coal shipper in North America. Columnist Chris Nelson ponders
whether India could charge the B.C. city for its environmental impact. POSTMEDIA
Wonder if I can pick up a fat finder’s fee from some on-the-ball environmental law firm based in Mumbai, looking to pull in a cool billion bucks from the deep pockets of Vancouver city council? One per cent seems fair.
Because that same B.C. outfit just voted to go after various oil companies — mostly based in Alberta, of course — for a hefty share of expected costs due to predicted climate change. They reckon a billion dollars would be reasonable compensation for future damages.
So they can’t complain when cities across India return that favour and request similar big payouts, considering Vancouver is North America’s largest coal exporting port and the latest lucrative market for that environmentally nasty black stuff is — yep, you guessed it — India.
Is it any wonder the saintly David Suzuki feels so at home in B.C., with his handful of fancy homes? That province ranks first, second and third in the hypocrisy Olympics, combining an endless bleating about the dangers of oil pipelines with a grubby cash grab from exporting coal.
Because Vancouver didn’t get atop the exporting coal heap simply by flogging the megatonnes mined in B.C. and Alberta. Oh no, that wasn’t enough for them. Instead, they’re merrily, if somewhat sheepishly, importing massive amounts of this major carbon-emitting fuel from the United States.
It seems mines in landlocked Montana and Wyoming have similar issues to Alberta in getting their product to overseas markets: they need co-operation from the two neighbouring states that have coastlines.
But the environmental lobby in Oregon and Washington has blocked that route to potential Asian riches, thereby providing a golden opportunity for the Port of Vancouver to step in and offer a suitable export solution, one to be rewarded with sizable moolah.
What a crazy world we live in when protesters and 3 levels of government fight tooth and nail to prevent Alberta from getting its oil to tide-water, but quietly goes around Washington and Oregon environmental laws to get Montana and Wyoming coal to port. This is utterly astonishing in its hypocrisy.
The nerve of these folk is absolutely stunning. It would make Justin Trudeau’s eyes water if they weren’t already in a state of perpetual liquidity.
Vancouver was already exporting 36 million tonnes of coal a year — both the metallurgic and thermal kind — with China the major market. But they’ve landed India as well because the Aussies, once a major supplier, have reliability supply issues.
So while we are intent on destroying our own energy industry in a move that won’t matter a jot to the amount of carbon in the atmosphere, we’ll simultaneously provide the coking coal allowing India to double its current steel production to 300 million tonnes by 2030. Imagine the extra global emissions arising from that.
Oh, and how does this coal get to India? Is some Lotusland version of Star Trek’s Scotty beaming it there? Nope, it will go by big tanker ship — strange, as an increase in that type of vessel when carrying oil is deemed a destructive noise threat to the region’s orcas.
Heck, I knew orcas were smart critters but never imagined they could see through tanker hulls so to reassure their collective pods there’s no need to worry about any racket from that one over there. No, kiddy killer whales, that ship’s only carrying coal.
Anyhow the good people of India have every right to clean air and a stable climate as us lot so it seems only fair Vancouver shell out big time for sending dirty coal — both the Yanks’ and ours — enabling the subcontinent’s future CO2 emissions to explode.
And India’s a big country with many cities. Maybe I’ll retire in style on all those future legal finders’ fees. Heck, with the proceeds, I could buy four luxury homes next door to David Suzuki’s various abodes.
Nah, I prefer the clean smell of an 1,100-square-foot Calgary bungalow and the knowledge our household’s carbon footprint is tiny. Actions rather than words — wasn’t there once a popular saying along those lines? Maybe it never made it across the Rockies.
Chris Nelson is a regular columnist for the Calgary Herald.
