Whale love

[Avril]

Yep, Mercury's in such a hurry he misses quite a lot. I think it's very funny when you're dense.

[PigsnieLite]

[PLite pouts.]

[Avril]

[PigsnieLite]

Are we still talking about whale love? Wheres my Psychobubbly?

[Sunfrogolin]

I don't want to know my character.
It's probably village idiot. Hahaha

[PigsnieLite]

You are probably Bloodthirsty Aztec game Boy! Wheeeeee!

So wheres that Evool Avrila? Dangling her naughty bits somewhere on the beach, I reckon.

[Avril]

More whale subjectives:

Whale that wrecked boat 'seemed sorry'
January 10, 2007 - 4:33PM The Sydney Morning Herald

A New Zealand sailor says he got a good vibe from the humpback whale that wrecked his boat and believes the giant mammal was sorry about the fuss it caused.

Lindsay Wright spent five anxious hours awaiting rescue on Tuesday after his boat hit the whale, which the yachtsman believed had been taking a nap.

Wright, who'd himself been getting some shut-eye, awoke about midday on Tuesday to a bang and rushed out of the cabin to see the whale's head about a foot from the trimaran.

He said the startled mammal had struck the boat with its tail, damaging one of the 10-metre vessel's hulls and forcing Wright to activate an emergency beacon.

Five hours later, emergency authorities winched the sailor to safety, about 160 kilometres from Port Waikato on the west coast of New Zealand's north island.

Wright said that, after the impact, as the whale remained close to the boat, they made eye contact.

"He just sort of sat there for about 30 seconds. When I first saw him I thought he had come back for the coup-de-grace," Wright said.

But the sailor said he soon began to feel the whale meant him no harm.

"I got good vibes off him and I think he was trying to say sorry. It sounds a bit strange, I know."

He said the whale was part of a pod of six.

Head of Marine Biology at New Zealand's University of Otago, Associate Professor Mike Barker, said it was not uncommon for boats to strike whales.

"There are a number of documented cases of yachts hitting whales and getting damaged or even sunk. It is not something common, but it has occurred before," Barker said.

But he scorned suggestions the whale might have felt remorse after damaging the vessel.

"It seems ... that would be very unlikely. They are intelligent animals, they have very big brains - they're right up there. But to say they feel remorse or sorrow or anger? It's one of the things that separates humans from animals," he said.

He said he thought the whale was likely to have been hit by the yacht after it was recovering from a long dive, but was probably not asleep.

Barker said he did not think it likely that the whale had targeted the boat.

"The old Moby Dick thing is certainly only a story-book phenomenon. Sharks will have a go, but it would be very unusual behaviour for a whale," he said.

Steve Corbett from Maritime New Zealand, who helped in Tuesday's emergency operation, said a family had to be rescued last year after their boat hit a whale.

Humpback whales migrate from Antarctica to subtropical waters each year and can be up to 19 metres long.

Corbett said Wright's yacht, worth $NZ38,000 ($34,000), had been left at the scene and was likely to sink.

Wright is trying to find out if his insurance will cover its expected loss.


AAP