Whale deaths?

[Ashful]

I know two people who have had boats struck by whales. When I saw the thread title, I thought it had been posted by a fellow sailor.

I've been told that nothing ruins your circumnavigation quite like waking up in the middle of the ocean at 2am with ocean pouring into your boat, and no other vessels within 100 nautical miles.

In the most recent case, last winter, the whale and boat both survived. But getting a dry dock for a 50 foot fixed keel yacht on short notice is apparently not so easy in some parts of the world.

 

[begreen]

With all the sudden handwringing about wind power, I came across a sobering and sad fact today:
"Scientists with Environment Canada have found that human-related activities destroy roughly 269 million birds and 2 million bird nests in Canada each year. Most human-related bird deaths (about 99%) are caused by the impacts of feral and pet cats, and collisions with buildings, vehicles, and electricity transmission and distribution lines.

Between 10-41 million birds per year are killed by collisions with transmission lines; between 160,000 and 800,000 birds are electrocuted by distribution lines; and about 400,000 nests are destroyed annually due to vegetation clearing under powerlines."

How many birds die each year in human-related ways? - Birds on the edge

From BirdLife International It is becoming increasingly obvious that our already declining bird populations, threatened by widescale habitat and climate changes, are put under further pressure through the actions of humans. Scientists with Environment Canada … Read more

www.birdsontheedge.org

I'm not trivializing avian deaths due to wind power. 140,000 – 328,000 globally a year is bad. They need to work on this issue and the power transmission line losses. That said, the scale of bird deaths for other reasons is staggering in proportion.

I came across this article after it was reported that the bird kill photos posted on social media in relation to the Ohio train spill were not actually from the spill at all. They were from Indiana and another state. The speculation in the Indiana case was that the birds died due to a sudden large surge running through the high-voltage lines above. This is known as line slap. It is so sudden and violent that it snaps their necks.