It is great news that the 100 pilot whales stranded on a beach at the top of New Zealand’s South Island have been refloated and are on their way back out to sea.
But you have to wonder who gave these dolphins, that seem unable to orientate for themselves, the name ‘pilot whale’?
The New Zealand stranding apparently occurred because the entire pod followed a leader who couldn’t navigate.
Almost as many pilot whales beached themselves at Cape Cod in 2002. Then it was thought that the leader of the pod was:
1. Chasing a school of squid, or
2. Just got lost in the maze of channels that wind between sandbars of Chapin’s extensive flats, or
3. Was sick and sought the refuge of shallow water, where he wouldn’t sink.
The rest of the pod just followed.
Why? Are pilot whales really just sheep – colloquially speaking?
Anyway there are a few ideas at this website titled ‘Irish dolphins’, click here.
Jennifer Marohasy BSc PhD has worked in industry and government. She is currently researching a novel technique for long-range weather forecasting funded by the B. Macfie Family Foundation.
Obviously a despotic right wing leader of the pack – who should have seen the folly of his arrogance and turned left before it was too late, and he (she?) had navigated his whole society onto the beach.
Of course if the “whales” had a meeting of the collective they may still have all beached themselves but at different individual beaches.
So how many times must they be re-floated before the original inhabitants can have a good feast of whale meat? It was their custom both here and NZ to feast on nature’s bounty. Who decided that dying whales could not be eaten?