Whales stranded on Hebrides beach

[John Arton]

55 pilot whales have died after been stranded on a beach in the Hebrides.
One reason for this is that one mother with her youngster got into difficulty in shallow water and the rest of the pod followed, another thought is that the Glomar Explorer was nearby and was carrying out seismic survey work and this may have confused the whales causing them to be stranded on the beach.
Rgds
J.A

[J Gowers]

John you sure you have the right name the Glomar Explorer was a drillship, scrapped in 2015 I was C/E on it for 3 years. Origionally called the Hughes Glomar Explorer and was built by the CIA in the 70s to lift a Russian sub in the pacific. Later it was converted to a drillship.

info here https://www.islapedia.com/index.php?...lomar_Explorer

[j.sabourn]

Any Seismic work today ceases when Whales are around or it did in 2001 in this neck of the woods. However it only ceases when whales were sighted or knew to be in the area and this obviously was during daylight hours. A professional whale watcher was part of the furniture on seismic vessels . I got into a discussion one time when work was stopped one time for such, costing many thousands of dollars in stoppage time , I asked him what he did at night when he was in bed , he just shrugged. My argument was that the whales would go elsewhere if they heard the explosions going off at various minute or two intervals . Whales aren’t daft and supposed to be clever animals .
JS.

[Mo Docherty]

Good post John.

[Des Taff Jenkins]

John
What does that say about the modern soldier? As daft as a whale.
Des

[j.sabourn]

No it’s having a whale of a time , and as daft as a brush , Sorry Basil , told you your tail would get you into trouble .JS
Wish I could remember more about whales but think it was the sperm whale that part of its blubber , think it was behind the Dorsal fin , contained about a pint of. A name like ambergris which went into the making of women’s perfume and was enormously expensive , would pay for the whole expense of slaughtering that poor whale . surprised Green peace haven’t copped on to it in their quest to finish all whale hunting. I remember being at anchor in the Moray Firth on an oil recovery vessel for about a week . Every morning about 0900 hrs this old whale would surface alongside the port side of the vessel and rub its body back and forwards along the vessels shell plating , must have been itchy, especially when you saw all the crustaceans attached to it. You always knew it was coming by the smell that preceded it . No fancy perfumes there it could certainly have done with some. Some might have thought it was trying to have sex with us but couldn’t find the main engine intake .JS

[j.sabourn]

Has anyone ever had to recover oil from an oil spill via a recovery vessel. ? I haven’t Although was on such a vessel there was I beleive 5 such vessels stationed in various zones of the North Sea for the case of a big spill .The principle for revovery was to lay an oil boom around the spill and pump the oil into special recovery tanks on board your ship. All the buoys , booms and special boat for laying such , plus all the hoses and equipment had to be at hand ready to go. The vessel I had was a converted fishing factory ship. In the case of small spills such as uncoupling fuel hoses between rig and ship was quicker and easier to steam back and forwards over the spill and break it up soon dispersed it and broke up and sank eventually. Another job usually for the safety boat which no one ever hears about. Nelson wasn’t the only Mariner who said “ I see no ships “. JS
For those who hoo and hah about so called law breaking , there is more natural emissions of oil from the seabed than all the man made spills in the world , nigh on a daily basis . JS

[j.sabourn]

#7 For those who know little about oil spills and take all reports as correct a few points they may not know .
In the 1980s all stand by/ safefy boats carried chemicals and spray booms for sprinkling on such . However permission had to be given from the Home Office to use. Beaurocity being what it is I have every notion by the time that was received the oil would have spread that far as to be uncontainable . I did a course in Fremantle on containing and clearing up the mess of a spill , the lecturer was one of those sent to the Persian Gulf after Saddam had opened up the taps after his illegal invasion of another country and been repulsed, Putin would have done well to have noticed what happened to him . Anyhow this real expert who practiced what he preached , the parts which weren’t. Sprayed by toxious chemicals cleared up much quicker with no after effects as such . The unsprayed areas were clear within 12 months by non other than Mother Nature. What you read in papers is not always correct if you keep an open mind. JS

[Des Taff Jenkins]

John.
Your oil on troubled waters is appropriate in today's world, just been reading a piece in a book on artificial intelligence my daughter gave me for my birthday.
A bloke has worked out that since they stopped tankers pumping their tank cleaning oil over the side; waves have been getting larger by the year, apparently many years ago sailing ships met these huge waves, then after the advent of tankers these waves dropped in size now they are increasing as the slick on the sea is missing allowing the waves to generate greater capacity.
Des

[j.sabourn]

Just think of all the merchant ships lost in the Atlantic during the war and even if steam driven would probably been bunker C , also all the diesel oil that went down with thousands of ships , what effects has it had on the pollution of the seas . No one ever mentions . Frightened to face facts maybe, or maybe would tear their fantasies to pieces ? JS