A most extra ordinary partnership

seeker372011 (Narayan) · #1 13-02-2006, 09:07 PM

over Christmas, my family and I went on holiday down the South Coast of New South Wales near a place called Eden, and visited the Whale Museum over there where we saw the skeleton of "Old Tom"-an orca-aka "killer whale",

It really is a most extraordinary story. Old Tom formed a partnership with the shore based whalers and used to lead a pack of orcas that would corner whales and then wait till the whalers arrived in their boats to kill them. The pay- off for the orcas was the tongue and lips of the whales-the whalers got everything else.

Once Old Tom-the leader of the orcas-died-shore based whaling itself died out..though of course I suppose how much was due to overharvesting and how much to Old Tom's demise is higly debatable

a whole industry that was dependent on a human- wild animal partnership..that's pretty unique

http://www.csiro.au/scinema/program/...ide_Marine.pdf

JohnG (John) · #2 13-02-2006, 09:35 PM

Yep, it is a facinating place, about a 100 K's south of me, lots of history around Two Fold Bay.

JohnG

fringe_dweller · #3 13-02-2006, 10:30 PM

there was an excellent ABC 'Australian story' on this story, last year?, had me totally gobsmacked - it was human greed that finished him, very sad, they wouldnt give him the tongue on one occasion and he got upset, they struck him in the mouth or a rope or something, ripped out a tooth it got infected and he died..

beren · #4 13-02-2006, 11:06 PM

interesting reading, thanks

acropolite (Phil) · #5 14-02-2006, 08:06 AM

Interesting story, I remember seeing something somewhere else where dolphins herded fish, on cue to, nets and were rewarded with an easy feed.

dhumpie · #6 16-02-2006, 05:56 PM

Yup whales and dolphins are fascinating creatures. They are my other passion (well other than the wifey and stargazing that is

I look forward to the whale watching season every year...

Darren

seeker372011 (Narayan) · #7 16-02-2006, 10:02 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by dhumpie

Yup whales and dolphins are fascinating creatures. They are my other passion (well other than the wifey and stargazing that is

I look forward to the whale watching season every year...

Darren

You might enjoy this picture then..this is a sperm whale diving, off the coast of Kaikoura, New Zealand, taken last month

#8 17-02-2006, 01:26 AM

Me and my dog have a similar relationship,

He don't bite me and

I don't kick him in the freckle.