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Pastimes : The New Qualcomm - write what you like thread. -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Dennis Roth who wrote (8615)	1/11/2008 2:31:35 PM
From: Maurice Winn	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 12247

Whale strandings explained. I have been out in the water [when I was about aged 10] with my father. I looked down and saw a big dark shape just beside us. I showed my father, instinctively developing a feeling that it was a shark and that it would be a good idea to hop up onto the surface of the water and start running. My father, being a calm sort of man who had had shells landing beside him during WWII, was not given to sensible panic, but said, we would just quietly walk towards the shore, which we did. It was a shark and they have big sharp teeth and like to eat things. There are also killer whales out there and they like to eat things too. They swallow little dolphins like M&Ms and rip the tongues out of grey whales, a delicacy, leaving them to die. Grey whales eat little things and have a huge tongue to squeeze the water through their baleen. en.wikipedia.org Being a whale and having a herd of killer whales rounding a cape would induce panic in a sensible pod of whales and they would seek a hiding place. Killer whales no doubt chat to each other and with good hearing, other whales would hear them coming. Being reasonably intelligent, they would listen in to the conversation which goes "Okay Pete, you and Myrtle head around the outside of the bay and head them off at the pass, we'll cruise in a row across the bay sweeping them towards you". The whales listening in think "Argggghhhh, here come the killer whales. They'll already have the escape routes sealed off at the southern end before we can get there. Swim for the shore and hopefully they won't notice us in the shallows and will check out the next bay or find some sting rays." I would think it better to take my chances with shallow water than be a certain dinner out in the deep. Even if I died, I think I'd rather die on a beach than be eaten alive by a killer whale or white pointer shark. Absurdly, white point sharks are now protected. They like to eat people, Hector's dolphins [a very cute little guy which is nearly extinct, porpoises, seals, and anything else they can get their teeth into. Dolphins are quite vicious gang members so normally can attack a shark and defeat it. But there are probably stragglers and the little Hector's dolphin wouldn't be able to do anything much, even in a gang. Such sharks would also be good incentive to head for the beach and hope the shark swims on by to somewhere else. The idea that whales get confused, lose their way, get suicidal etc is silly. Animals like to be alive. They are trying to stay alive. Being between the devil and the deep blue sea, they choose, sensibly, to have a go at land, or at least shallow water. Mqurice