The Daily Journal/Bay City News, 8/6/15, "Dead humpback towed back out to sea."
The city hired a company on Tuesday to tow the whale about 25 miles out to sea, which should ensure it does not return to shore, Pacifica police Capt. Joe Spanheimer said. Scientists with the Marin Headlands-based Marine Mammal Center and the California Academy of Sciences examined the whale on Sunday and found evidence that it had been hit by a passing ship.
A necropsy performed on the decomposing whale found internal hemorrhaging on the whale’s left side below its pectoral flipper, an injury consistent with blunt force trauma such as a ship strike, Marine Mammal Center officials said." Read more.
Related news, KRON, Bay Area News Station 4, Vince Cestone, 8/4/15. "A Santa Cruz tow boat company waited for a high tide before towing it away. The towing company said they would dispose of the whale once they passed the Farrallon islands. It was the third whale to wash ashore in Pacifica this year."
Posted by Kathy Meeh
Well done, Mayor Ervin! Yes, Karen, you!
ReplyDeleteHow much did towing the whale out to sea cost.
ReplyDeleteVegas odds say the whale is back on the beach in a week.
Good job and having said that, I'm positive CalTrans played no role in it. Eww...they'd have laid the poor whale under asphalt. Remember the old Lucy episode with the stomping of the grapes? There ya go. CalTrans hefties stompin' away.
ReplyDelete222 If they towed it out to the Farallones, it's shark food. Feeding ground.
ReplyDeleteWhen I die I want to be towed out to the Farallones too. Viking sendoff. Valhalla awaits.
ReplyDeleteAn idea.
ReplyDeleteSan Mateo County should designate a part of the coastline and a standard process for towing ocean carcasses to onshore. This way,
1) you avoid of risk of floating carcasses re-appearing on the beaches.
2) treat the local wild life to a treat
3) preserve some evidence (bones, teeth etc) for future generations to study and/or public display
Can't hurt anyone ..
LL Just have them towed to Pacifica. Right across from Council Chambers. Could be a money maker for the city.
ReplyDeleteLL
ReplyDeleteThere is talk about lowering the shipping speed limit out in the shipping channels.
3 out of the 4 dead whales were hit by large ships.
4:47 the daily BS shoved over at City Hall smells worst than dead whales.
ReplyDelete4:57 - Price of progress. Shipping is also one of the largest (if not the largest) contributors of exhaust related pollution gases to atmosphere. Ships burn crude oil. Not to mention other forms of ecological pollution due to ballast water discharge, lost containers at sea etc etc
ReplyDeleteNot sure if lowering the speed limit will help. A big ship can generate a lot of torque even at 5 knots speed. And 5 knots speed is enough to put a big sized hole in a mid to large sailboat or the side of a whale.
Eventually, we'll be forced to cut our dependence on cheap foreign production. But that is some ways off. Hopefully we don't kill off all the whales by then. That would be a real tragedy.
LL not with the amount of goods made over in China and overseas. The United States went from a producing of goods country to an outsourcer of just about everything. The United States just doesn't create anything but tech and biotech.
ReplyDeleteWe have been hearing we need to cut our dependence on foreign oil since I was a kid, and now Iran wants to flood the world with oil, cause they need the money. Our Oil from Alaska goes to China and Japan.
ReplyDeleteCould build a rail road from Asia to America over the Bering Strait
It could be powered by a combination of Solar, Wind & Nuclear power. I think its worth saving our oceans and ocean fauna.
Won't be any business or profits to make in a dead and dilapidated world :-(
8:48
ReplyDeleteIf we are all dead, who is going to be around to worry about it?
Cockroaches?
Some other Animal will replace us. Life goes on. Since I do believe in karmic re-incarnation I am not too worried about worrying or lack thereof. However, it would be nice to live and let others live (non-human Animals including).
ReplyDeleteCity Hall is working on a new tax:
ReplyDeleteThe dead whale tax.
Death and taxes, baby.
ReplyDelete