Radiance hits whale

[esbie11]

I apologize if this has already been posted, but I just read this on cruisejunkie.

"El Mercurio (Chile) reports that the ship arrived yesterday in Puerto Montt with a 12 meter long dead humpback whale entangled on the bow. The Navy undertook an inspection but was unable to determine whether the whale was alive when it was struck. The remains of the animal were removed by a fishing vessel and transported to the open sea. The two thousand passengers on the cruise did not know of the whale strike. "

 

Poor whale:(

[ssatterly]

I apologize if this has already been posted, but I just read this on cruisejunkie.

"El Mercurio (Chile) reports that the ship arrived yesterday in Puerto Montt with a 12 meter long dead humpback whale entangled on the bow. The Navy undertook an inspection but was unable to determine whether the whale was alive when it was struck. The remains of the animal were removed by a fishing vessel and transported to the open sea. The two thousand passengers on the cruise did not know of the whale strike. "

 

Poor whale:(

 

 

Its sad but it happens....

[FLACRUISER99]

No way is a healthy whale going to be hit by a ship.

[jbond]

Poor whale

Its sad but it happens....

No need to blubber over.:(

Hope the ship's OK.:rolleyes:

[scoruntt]

Well thats a whale of a tale!!!

 

Scoruntt

[negc]

We had a similar situation on the Diamond Princess in Alaska in 1999. We didn't know about it until we saw pictures in the Vancouver paper the following morning.:) Never felt a thing onboard.

[coxswain]

Yeah very funny Scoruntt !!

 

 

 

So sad :-(

 

 

 

jj.....

[Rancher Dave]

You have to wonder why did the crew not notice the situation and either try to avoid it...or let pax know as they pulled into port so when they see it in port or hear about it aren't surprised.

 

Definitely sad, but as someone else said likely it was not the healthiest of the whales out there.

[TravlGrl]

No need to blubber over.:(

Hope the ship's OK.:rolleyes:

 

Hahahahaha~! Ok, at first I thought you really weren't being very nice...then a full minute later, I got it! :rolleyes: Whew! Slow day in the brain for me today apparently.

[VASOXFANN]

Hope the ship's OK.:rolleyes:

 

Me too :eek:

 

Well thats a whale of a tale!!!

 

Scoruntt

 

OK, that got a little chuckle :o

[Quickcanuck]

The captain of the Radiance told us the whale had been dead for several days before the ship hit it. They arranged for a marine biologist to inspect it and they found it was already starting to smell a bit ripe so they arranged to have it towed out to sea. This was a tender port so it was not possible to "hide the view" from the passengers.

 

Here's a picture from the tender

 

[rednancy1]

So sad for a beautiful mammal.

I love all the animals and grieve for them.

[robtulipe]

No way is a healthy whale going to be hit by a ship.

Want to bet on that. Whales do sleep and do so at the surface. Also a ship like the Radiance that can do 26 knots can overrun a whale easily. In the waters between Nova Scotia and Maine, where many whale (Grays I believe) are located during certain time and off shore near Maui (Humpbacks) strikes were a very common occurrence and now there are regulations to limit the speed of boats and ships in these waters during the times the whales are there.

[Illmaxict]

thats it! i am never sailing RCI again!!!!

[cassieroll]

Here's a picture from the tender

 

So it sort of "stuck" to the front of the ship? Huh. I'm surprised it didn't float away or get pushed away from the force of the ship moving through the water.

[Coralc]

The captain of the Radiance told us the whale had been dead for several days before the ship hit it. They arranged for a marine biologist to inspect it and they found it was already starting to smell a bit ripe so they arranged to have it towed out to sea. This was a tender port so it was not possible to "hide the view" from the passengers.

 

Here's a picture from the tender

 

 

Thanks for the photo. What is that big spike sticking out of it? (if you know)It is very sad, but is that how it it became caught on the bow? The photo in the paper sort of shows ropes.

[satxdiver]

I apologize if this has already been posted, but I just read this on cruisejunkie.

"El Mercurio (Chile) reports that the ship arrived yesterday in Puerto Montt with a 12 meter long dead humpback whale entangled on the bow. The Navy undertook an inspection but was unable to determine whether the whale was alive when it was struck. The remains of the animal were removed by a fishing vessel and transported to the open sea. The two thousand passengers on the cruise did not know of the whale strike. "

 

Poor whale:(

 

Very sad of course. The ocean is home for a lot of creatures including whales and accidents do happen just like on land. Ships move through the water rather quickly and can not help hitting sea creatures from time to time. The ships are large enough they do not even realize they have hit some creature including a whale. A whale is big enough if hit at the right spot can wrap around the bow and not be able to get away particularly if they were seriously injured or killed. The ship's screw (propeller) hits creatures from time to time which is seldom seen or reported. However it does happen. Ships try not to hit whales, but it does happen.

[wolfshadow]

We hit a whale on the Infinity down in the MR back in 2006, too. My DH overheard some crew talking about it or else we probably never would have known. :(

[cruisecrasy]

If u consider what the navy sonar is doing to the sea mammals, then u add dozens of sonar operated transport & cruise ships travelling at high speeds - plus all the chemicals & garbage we dump in the oceans daily - bilge water/oil also springs to mind -

Oh right - the ships wldn't dump that wld they?? :(

Then toss in global warming - all this caused by humans of course & I for one pity the poor sea creatures..!

[Quickcanuck]

Thanks for the photo. What is that big spike sticking out of it? (if you know)It is very sad, but is that how it it became caught on the bow? The photo in the paper sort of shows ropes.

 

It's one of the whale's fins. Here's another shot when they were towing it away, you can see the two fins on either side.

 

[Coralc]

Cool, post it on this thread...I was sharing your first photo (with credit).

 

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=894533&page=31

 

And someone else mentioned fin..that makes sense. It looked like rebar to me. :)

 

I hope you had a great cruise. What an interesting thing to encounter. From what I am reading South America does sound like an fascinating cruise. Thanks. :D

[BroncosFan2010]

Wow... poor whale. We can just hope it was dead before the ship hit it.

[dougp26364]

No way is a healthy whale going to be hit by a ship.

 

 

Actually, when we took one of the whale watching tours in Alaska, the naturalist told us that, when whales are feeding they are oblivious to everything around them. That's part of the reason for excursion boats to keep a certain distance from the whales. Despite trying to keep that distance we had a whale surface very near our boats to the point it disturbed the captain. Not that the he was to close but that the whale would actually hit the boat.

[Emi's Mom]

Poor whale:(

 

Sorry little fellow!

[ClipperMiami]

Ban ships.

 

/sarc