Don forget to include Manatee's in that group. I made friends with what appeared to be a family of three. We would play hide and seek. They would surface within inches of me as they swam around, disappear for a few minutes, and then resurface right in front of me. They were not at all afraid to be touched and petted, in fact they seemed to have a great time, as I. This went on for a couple of days until I had to leave.

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Question Authority before it Questions you.

There were a myriad of protests in San Francisco.

Rights for illegal whales and chants for no borders anywhere.

Racial and geriatric discrimination because the whales were grey in color and they had been cut up by some hate monger's propeller.

The ACLU claimed that their freedom of speech had been quashed because no effort was made to lower microphones down to them so that they could whale-sing their needs and opinons about the water quality and access to health care.

The pro-abortion groups were outraged that this poor female whale was allowed to have a baby and not given prompt abortion counseling beforehand which would have helped her avoid post partum depression and disorienation thereby saving tax payers so much money.


The animal rights crowd was outraged that the whale story and whales were exploited for the sake of greedy media moguls and worse, the whales were subjected to attempts to herd them like cattle. "let nature take its course alone." was the chant. "Whale shell overcome !"

Even the Venezuelen consulate made a statement that "Mr. Danger, Bush, had armed the whales and trained them to speed off to Venezuela and nuke the Chavez. Of course the scheme went south. typical of Bush policy"


Makes me feel warm and fuzzy inside.

But hey, happy they made it OUT of San Francisco Bay !!!

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1979 300D 220 K miles
1995 C280 109 K miles
1992 Cadillac Eldorado Touring Coupe 57K miles SOLD
********************
1979 240D 140Kmiles (bought for parents) *SOLD.
SAN FRANCISCO/(*San Diego)
1989 300SE 148 K miles *SOLD

Blue whales 'making a comeback'
By Richard Black
Environment correspondent, BBC News website, Anchorage, Alaska

The blue whale, possibly the largest animal ever to live on Earth, is making a comeback, scientists have said.

Data shows that the population of marine mammal in the Southern Hemisphere have increased from a few hundred to a few thousand.

Before the commercial hunting era, there would have been hundreds of thousands in the oceans.

The findings were presented at the International Whaling Commission's (IWC) annual meeting.

Numbers of other large species such as fin whales and humpbacks are also rising in many parts of the world.

"The most recent data is really encouraging," said the IWC's head of science Greg Donovan.

"Blue whales have now been increasing by about 7-8% per year for the last 10 years at least, for which we have good data.

"The abundance is still very low, it's about 2,300 for the whole southern hemisphere so it's a tiny fraction of what it used to be, but it's good news they're increasing."

There is less data available for the northern hemisphere, but off the Icelandic coast a recovery has also been noted.

The IWC's "guesstimate" is that globally, numbers are currently about 4,500.

Top target

Blue whales are true leviathans, growing up to 30m in length and weighing up to 190 tonnes.

Before industrial-scale commercial hunting began in earnest about a century ago, there were thought to be 150,000-200,000 in the oceans.


Commercial whalers caught thousands of blue whales each year

As factory ships and efficient harpoons multiplied, the blue's size made it the favoured species, as vast quantities of oil could be extracted from its blubber.

The 1930-1931 season alone saw about 30,000 prised from the oceans.

Protection arrived in the 1960s; but with numbers so low, it was doubtful whether the species could survive.

For now, it has survived, with its extraordinary capacity to communicate acoustically over distances of thousands of kilometres meaning it could find mates even when so few remained.

Renewed threat?

Global protection from hunting for the second largest species, the fin, and the whale-watcher's favourite, the humpback, have also led to populations rising in several parts of the oceans.

But that can bring mixed benefits. There have been rumours over the last six months that scientists advising the organisation which decides threat categories for animals, the World Conservation Union (IUCN), are contemplating moving humpbacks from their current Vulnerable status to a less threatened category.

As numbers grow, so does the likelihood that a species will be hunted.

For the moment, catches of these giant creatures remain low. Over the next 12 months, hunters from Japan, Greenland, Iceland and the Caribbean will target 78 fins and 54 humpbacks, and nobody is suggesting catching blue whales again.

Dr Donovan sees climate change as potentially the biggest long-term threat.

"We don't know whether climate change is going to be a big problem for whales, but it could be," he said.

"Blues feed very close to the ice edge, and if there's less ice then it could affect them. But it could be that the opposite will happen, we really don't know at the moment."

Richard.Black-INTERNET@bbc.co.uk

nature can heal a lot if the pressure from man is released.

thanks for the whale post, b.

tom w

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[SIGPIC] Diesel loving autocrossing grandpa Architect. 08 Dodge 3/4 ton with Cummins & six speed; I have had about 35 benzes. I have a 39 Studebaker Coupe Express pickup in which I have had installed a 617 turbo and a five speed manual.[SIGPIC]

..I also have a 427 Cobra replica with an aluminum chassis.

Bad news for krill....

One of the whale controversies that I follow (in a sort of desultory fashion) is the concern over high-energy, low-frequency sonic device testing in the ocean. There has been concern that the testing could screw-up mating or migration or hunting abilities of marine mammals. I haven't seen anything on that lately. But the blue whale (and other) population increases might be negative evidence of a sort.

My next favorite ocean story to follow is the giant squid!

B

yeah, that thing was amazing!

tom w

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[SIGPIC] Diesel loving autocrossing grandpa Architect. 08 Dodge 3/4 ton with Cummins & six speed; I have had about 35 benzes. I have a 39 Studebaker Coupe Express pickup in which I have had installed a 617 turbo and a five speed manual.[SIGPIC]

..I also have a 427 Cobra replica with an aluminum chassis.

Are you counting Dolphins?

http://www.wdcs.org/dan/publishing.nsf/allweb/7B8130ABC27055D4802570B90050ABD8

Dolphins ain't fish unless we are talking dorrado (which I hope to be catching in the morning).

i know ding dong . but i think the original poster was implying that animals have never helped humans which is way untrue.

perhaps i misunderstood your post. i thought you meant that dolphins behavior was only remarkable to us because we think they are actually fish. i said that no other mammals do the things that dolphins do and so they are remarkable in any context.

tom w

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[SIGPIC] Diesel loving autocrossing grandpa Architect. 08 Dodge 3/4 ton with Cummins & six speed; I have had about 35 benzes. I have a 39 Studebaker Coupe Express pickup in which I have had installed a 617 turbo and a five speed manual.[SIGPIC]

..I also have a 427 Cobra replica with an aluminum chassis.

a gray whale was found today in SF Bay washed up by shore. Beat up by propellers.

Someone mentioned that cell phone frequencies or maybe frequencies in general are a factor in honey bee deaths.

?????/??

__________________
1979 300D 220 K miles
1995 C280 109 K miles
1992 Cadillac Eldorado Touring Coupe 57K miles SOLD
********************
1979 240D 140Kmiles (bought for parents) *SOLD.
SAN FRANCISCO/(*San Diego)
1989 300SE 148 K miles *SOLD

Spoken as only a SF resident could. ( used to live there myself, till fairly recently ! )

You forgot the Animal Liberation Front's cries that they were being exploited by the media and red paint was thown at the camera crews to express this

And, the Lesbian/Bisexual/Gay/Transgender center on Market Street is planning a lawsuit on behalf of LBGT whales were NOT
afforded equal publicity.

And the BCLU (Bicyclists Civil Liberties Union) faction of "Critical Mass"
will be holding a special ride so as to divert the SFPD next time this happens from using personnel for crowd control of whale watchers on the Marina Green

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1991 560 SEC AMG, 199k <---- 300 hp 10:1 ECE euro HV ...

1995 E 420, 170k "The Red Plum" (sold)

2015 BMW 535i xdrive awd Stage 1 DINAN, 6k, <----364 hp

1967 Mercury Cougar, 49k

2013 Jaguar XF, 20k <----340 hp Supercharged, All Wheel Drive (sold)

I forgot to mention that there was an uproar about the use of the term MOTHER in the newspaper and media when describing the larger whale.

Vociferous groups of contranaturalyinyang orientation were outraged and aghast that many sensitive folks might have been offended by the word Mother since this implied that the one larger whale had been at one time paired with a male whale (as is natural for Nature) progenator of the smaller whale 'alleged' baby offspring.

So offended were they that medical marijuana clubs throughout the City had a run on this 'medicine' to calm the nerves of so many.

Seroiusly, the California Governor was ready to ask for Federal aid!!!

BORAT come to San Francisco, PLEEEZ.

__________________
1979 300D 220 K miles
1995 C280 109 K miles
1992 Cadillac Eldorado Touring Coupe 57K miles SOLD
********************
1979 240D 140Kmiles (bought for parents) *SOLD.
SAN FRANCISCO/(*San Diego)
1989 300SE 148 K miles *SOLD