Anyone see the news last nite? Cruise ship hits whale in SF

[jnnifer01]

I was watching tv last night and a commercial for the news came on saying something about a scary collision with a cruise ship (here in San Francisco). So, of course I had to watch the news to find out what this was all about. Finally, the story came on (this news comes on at 11). I think it was a Holland America ship, but could be wrong. Not much else comes here than HA. Any way, they played a recorded phone interview from one of the ship's guests. He reports that when heading out of the SF bay, they whole ship shuddered and vibrated. At this time, everyone looked over the side of the ship to check it out and they say they saw a whale flopping around in a pool of blood- flippers splashing around, etc. They guy also said there is a massive cover up onboard with the crew, deneying hitting anything (strange). Any how, just wondering if anyone else saw this story last night. Poor whale. [img]http://messages.cruisecritic.com/infopop/emoticons/icon_frown.gif[/img]
That also sounds like a bad way to start a cruise.


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[cruiserforlife]

hasn't been confirmed yet though and unless we see a whale wash up on the beach,I guess we'll never know for sure...

"a bad day at sea is better than a great day at work and a lousy day at sea is still pretty damn good!"

[skiiergirl]

When did this supposedly happen? The Radiance was there either Tues or Weds. (I think).

[mafig]

On the Cruise Addicts board they're saying it was the Coral Princess. Gosh, it seems a whale is pretty big to hit. Wouldn't sonar pick it up?

I feel bad for the whale also.

[Coralc]

Full article is at: [url="http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2002/07/19/BA87633.DTL"]SF GATE Whale [/url]

Never Mind, just noticed the article is from July 19, 2002. Same circumstances, and same location, I guess it's not all that uncommon. [img]http://messages.cruisecritic.com/infopop/emoticons/icon_smile.gif[/img]

[erin_cruisers]

That would be terrible, if true. For the guests to see, and especially for the whale.
I hope that help (Coast Guard?) was sent out for the whale, if required.
I've often wondered about the Dolphins that seem to love to swim with ships. And whether there were accidents there. Hopefully not!

Grandeur of the Seas
05-31-04

[jstducky]

i tried doing a search on the internet about this and didn't find anything. if this did happen though, thats pretty sad! although i guess its not uncommon. in doing my search i came across articles in the past couple of years where a princess ship was accused of hitting and killing a pregnant humpback whale, and also a holland ship was accused of hitting and killing a different humpback whale. but of course both of these took place in Alaska.

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[jnnifer01]

I forgot Celebrity comes here, too, so I'm not sure which company it was. I'd bet when the passengers disembark at the end of the cruise, they'll have more interviews to share with the news.


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[jnnifer01]

PBHunt, I read the article that you posted and it said that the other whale had propeller cuts and might have been too sick to move before the ship hit it. I wonder if the same thing happened again? I would think a healthy whale would hear a ship coming and move, but then again, I'm not a marine biologist, so who knows. That had to be an awful sight to see for the passengers that saw it.


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Jennifer & Shaun on the Conquest
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Jennifer & Shaun on the Pride
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[Coralc]

Yes weird, Jennifer. I fell asleep before the news, but I thought it was an article about the incident you described, until I noticed the date at the top. I will check the newspaper this evening. Interesting, thanks for posting. [img]http://messages.cruisecritic.com/infopop/emoticons/icon_smile.gif[/img]

[jnnifer01]

Someone has posted on the Princess board about this topic. They think it might have been the Coral Princess, but also said the Regal ( [img]http://messages.cruisecritic.com/infopop/emoticons/icon_confused.gif[/img]) was sailing along side of the Coral at the time. It's a mystery.


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Carnival Pride
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Jennifer & Shaun on the Conquest
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Jennifer & Shaun on the Pride
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[jsargent34]

Sonar would certainly pick up a whale, if cruise ships were equipped with it! Maybe we can start a movement to outfit cruise ships with sonar... I would gladly return to being a sonar technician if it involved working on a cruise line!!!!!!!!!!!

STG2(SW) USN 1990-94

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[Globaliser]

I remember being told that whales usually have exquisitely good situational awareness, so it's very rare for them to get in the way of a ship that they can hear coming. And cruise ships, I imagine, must make a hell of a racket when underway.

[dougp26364]

Ships sonar messes with the whales own sonar and causes all sorts for problems for them.

Also, if whales are feeding, everything else gets blocked out. We were almost run over by a humback on our whale watching tour in Juenuea last year. While the tour boats are required to keep their distance, the whales aren't. They sometimes get in very close to the cruise boats because the captian of those boats can always keep track of where they are going.

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[byefairwind]

"The 70-foot-long beast had four large propeller wounds on its top and side"

from article

Sounds like road kill. I believe only the QM2 has 4 props.

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[fireguy091]

byefairwind
maybe one prop hit it 4 times


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[byefairwind]

Perhaps they turned around and hit it again.

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[tommoore1]

Maybe the whale was committing suicide! I know that sounds frivolous, but when whales are ill, they have been known to intentionally beach themselves.
Just a thought...
--Tom

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'Till we're back on the high seas

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'Till our Alaskan adventure

[paw323]

I didn't see the news last night, but I know the Regal Princess sailed 5/6/04 for Alaska on a 10-night cruise. My co-worker is on board, I'll ask her when she gets back 5/17.

I saw Radiance and Oosterdam on 5/4/04, and X's Mercury was here 5/5/04.

So, if you say it's HAL, it might be Oosterdam... I've got photos, click on the link.

[url="http://photos.yahoo.com/bruisers32"]http://photos.yahoo.com/bruisers32[/url]

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[royalcaribbeanfan]

That's what whales and dolphins do when they are going to die; they beach themselves. I don't think that the whale, as smart as it is has any concept of suicide or that running into a ship will do the trick. It might be that the whale was sick and was trying to beach itself when it had the encounter with the ship that ended it's life. It is very sad. [img]http://messages.cruisecritic.com/infopop/emoticons/icon_frown.gif[/img] I love marine mammals and had the opportunity to see dolphins following VOS on our cruise in 2002. It was very moving for me. Dolphins bring me to tears very easily(very emotional female here)! I have purchased marine mammal calendars, cross-stitch patterns and assorted jewelry!!! I hope the whale didn't suffer as it was dying. Although from what I saw on this post it did. [img]http://messages.cruisecritic.com/infopop/emoticons/icon_frown.gif[/img] It is possible that the ships sonar did pick up the whale, but if they were leaving port it is possible they didn't have time or room to manuever around the animal. When you are out in the ocean, periodically check off the bow and stern of the ship and you might have the opportunity to see a pod of dolphins swimming with the ship.

Happy Cruising

Patty

[sandhillwings]

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><font size="-1">quote:</font><HR> Dolphins bring me to tears very easily <HR></BLOCKQUOTE>
Yes, especially when Dan Marino was in charge...

[og719]

1. Cruise ships don't have a sonar system, other than a fathometer to measure water depth.

2. I'm not sure anyone KNOWS that active sonar transmissions have any adverse effects on marine mammals.

3. Ships rarely transmit active sonar these days.

4. In my 30 years of dealing with sonar systems on active duty, it was always my experience that porpoises tend to gather around the transducer of a transmitting sonar. When it pings, they talk back at it. Ask any sonar tech. Help me out here, jSargent.

5. Ships hitting whales happens more than you would think. Especially if the ship is transiting at a higher speed.

"He saw himself as a crystal pool of clarity, and viewed his life as a troubled glass of misunderstood virtue."

[jsargent34]

og719,

I thought I mentioned that a while ago too!! ??

To clarify....

CRUISE SHIPS DO NOT HAVE SONAR.

Here's a free discovery channel episode for everyone...

Sonar (SOund Navigation And Ranging) has two distinct applications and two distinct uses. I'm sure that everyone knows that there are SHIPS that sail on the surface of the water, and BOATS that sail under the water (submarines). Submarines use sonar for its original intended purpose, navigation and ranging. Surface ships have absolutely no use for sonar as a navagational aid, because they enjoy the ability to use radar. There are two types of sonar, active sonar and passive sonar. Active sonar is when sound is transmitted from a tranducer which travels through the water and bounces off a target returning to the ship/boat. Surface ships rarely, if ever now a days, use active sonar (but that's a different episode). Passive sonar on the other hand allows a sonar operator to listen to sounds in the water through a complex grouping of hydrophones - underwater microphones if you will.

I will gladly go into more detail if necessary, but the bottom line is that cruise ships do not have transducers, hydrophones, sonar domes, sonar equipment, sonar technicians (unfortunately), or any need, use, or application that would recquire sonar on board. All cruise ship navigation is done with surface radar and GPS tracking.

Now with regard to the effect of sonar on sea life... the short answer is that there is none. Obviously, there are exceptions as with everything else in life, but by and large, sonar cannot "mess" with whales, dolphins, etc. simply because sonar is more akin to their "language" than anything else. U.S. Navy ships are equipped with a piece of equipment called an underwater microphone, which every sonar technician (at some point) "played" with and talked to dolphins. They love it, as do whales and when us silly humans talk or "sing" into this microphone, sea life talks and sings back... it's really quite unique and interesting.

Hopefully there are two main things to be learned from this babbling!!!

1. CRUISE SHIPS DO NOT USE SONAR OR HAVE SONAR EQUIPMENT ON BOARD (except fathomether)

AND

2. SONAR DOES NOT "MESS" WITH OR KILL WHALES OR DOLPHINS.

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[Family of 14]

[img]http://messages.cruisecritic.com/infopop/emoticons/icon_frown.gif[/img] Here is an article about the mishap:

[url="http://bluewaternetwork.org/press_releases/pr2004may8_cv_whale.pdf"]http://bluewaternetwork.org/press_releases/pr2004may8_cv_whale.pdf[/url]

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[yarlenna]

I have seen dolphin swimming with ships. They seem to be dancing in the waves created by the ship plowing through the water.
2 thoughts
1) Ships are not cars, they cannot stop in a few ship lengths. If a whale swims into the path of a ship, there would be very little chance that the ship could stop or change course enough to avoid it. Even if it did change course, what would prevent the whale from changing course too?
2) If a ship did a swift severe movement to avoid a whale (or other marine animal) and passengers/crew were severely injured as a result, what would be the moral and legal results of that action?

I feel bad that one of those beautiful creatures died. I am glad that it is such a rare event.

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