So I am sitting down, watching the tube, and they are babbling endlessly about the whale that died in the Thames river in England.  Not sure why this is global news, but anyhow, 2 questions come to mind.

1.  In the history of the known human endeavors, has there ever been a successful whale rescue?  These groups always seem to spend a lot of time and money trying to rescue beached whales and the like, but I can't recall any of them ever being successful.  They had a crane, boats, hundreds of "marine experts", etc, just seems a little silly.

2.  The one marine expert was saying they decided to move after the whale appeared to start drifting in the river.  Someone check me if I am wrong, but don't all rivers lead to sea, so if the whale began to drift with the current, wouldn't it have just made it to sea on its own?

I realize the insignificance of the questions, which in my mind only reinforces the even bigger waste of time in trying to rescue the whale.  Anyone's thoughts......

At least they didn't try to blow it up like they did here a few years ago...

Of course is it international news...

The Price of Fish 'N Chips just went WAAYYY down, so now more 'Murican tourists will head over there.

2.  The one marine expert was saying they decided to move after the whale appeared to start drifting in the river.  Someone check me if I am wrong, but don't all rivers lead to sea, so if the whale began to drift with the current, wouldn't it have just made it to sea on its own?

Could be the tide was bringing it in.

I think it's sad.

Ah poor Blowie.  I don't think he was very well.  He's in whale heaven now.

G

It is important to note that suddenly, and
against all probability, a sperm whale had
been called into existence several miles
above the surface of an alien planet. And
since this is not a naturally tenable
position for a whale, this innocent
creature had very little time to come to
terms with its identity as a whale before
it then had to come to terms with suddenly
not being a whale any more. This is what
it thought as it fell.


“Ahhhh!!!! What's happening? Excuse me! Who
am I? Hello? Why am I here? What's my
purpose in life? What do I mean by who am
I? What is this 'I' that I want to know
what it is? Calm down, get a grip now ...
ooh! This is an interesting sensation...

Oh! This is an interesting sensation,
what is it? It's a sort of... yawning,
tingling sensation in ... well I suppose I'd
better start finding names for things if I
want to make any headway in what for the
sake of what I shall call an argument I
shall call the world, so let's call it my
stomach! Good.

Ooooh! It's getting quite strong now.
And hey, what's this whistling
roaring sound going past what I'm suddenly
going to call my head? Perhaps I can call
that ... wind! Is that a good name? It'll
do. Perhaps I can give it a better name
later when I've found out what it's for!
It must be very important because there
certainly seems to be an awful lot of it.
Hey! What's this thing ... this ... let's call
it a tail - yeah! Tail!

Hey! I can really thrash it about pretty
good, can't I? Wow! Wow! Doesn't seem to
achieve much but I'll probably find out
what it's for later on. How. Have I built
up a coherent picture of things yet?
No. Never mind. Hey, this is really
exciting, so much to find out about, ao
much to look forward to, I'm quite dizzy
with anticipation ... Or is it the wind?
There really is an awful lot of that now,
isn't there?

And hey! What's this thing coming
suddenly coming towards me very fast, so
big and flat and round it needs a big
wide-sounding name like ... ow ... ound...round
... ground! That's it, ground! I wonder if
it'll be friends with me?”

Curiously, the only thing that went
through the mind of the bowl of petunias
as it fell was "Oh no, not again."
Many have speculated that if we knew why
the bowl of petunias had thought that we
would know a lot more about the nature of
the Universe than we do now.

It should now be processed and utilized to its full potential.

Everytime I hear of a beached whale or see it on the news, I am reminded of this episode of Seinfeld.....

with George Costanza, Marine Biologist.

I realize the insignificance of the questions, which in my mind only reinforces the even bigger waste of time in trying to rescue the whale.  Anyone's thoughts......

I agree, why on earth should they spend countless amounts of £££ to save a fucking whale? Shot it and eat it. There must be something in the .uk that needs the money and resources more than a single whale.

Quoted: Everytime I hear of a beached whale or hear it on the news, I am reminded of this episode of Seinfeld..... images2.pictiger.com/images/fa/c5fe0c8769bdf57f4f31c3f7d05ab5fa.jpg with George Constanza, Marine Biologist.

lol...

Rosie O'Donut died in England?

I thought this thread would be about Prince Charles suddenly becoming King Charles.

They missed their chance to take a Nantucket sleigh ride.

I remember about 15 years ago some stupid whale that got trapped in the ice up in the Arctic somewhere. The US Navy, the Soviet Navy and bunch of tree huggers spent weeks and millions of dollars to recue the damn thing.

Phil,  I want some of what you're smokin'.

It's Bush's fault.

There goes my chance to go whaling in the Thames

Quoted: ace.mu.nu/archives/tedkennedyhelo.jpg

TED  

Yes, there have been many successful whale "cradle" rescue's and the Montery Bay Aquarium use's similar technique's to move whales/dolphin's.
Also, twice in the last 5~6 years, we have had this happen locally. Grey whales coming in through SF bay(some think the same whale), and going up through the Sacramento river delta, ending up in some random slough. Both times the whale(s) was "herded" back out into the SF bay and out under the Golden Gate.
I think the "herding" technique would have worked in London, if they had started 3 days ago. The whale was already suffering from distress when they went with the cradle rescue and it was probably already too late. But,I'm sure the people invloved are not used to dealing with this type situation. At least alot of Londoner's got to see a whale, that otherwise wouldn't have.

Quoted: Everytime I hear of a beached whale or hear it on the news, I am reminded of this episode of Seinfeld..... images2.pictiger.com/images/fa/c5fe0c8769bdf57f4f31c3f7d05ab5fa.jpg with George Constanza, Marine Biologist.

The sea was angry that day, my friends!

I looked into the eye of the great beast...

Cool avitar MuRDoC.  I was a Cobra mechanic in the Army for 8 years.

Not trying to beat a dead horse, but another question regarding this whole whale rescue:  Why don't they follow the normal creed of, "It may seem cruel, but it is nature's way, we cannot interfere"?  

I guess what initially set me off was all the coverage of this, while the coal miner rescue/recovery effort in WV was being pushed out of the headlines.  Being from a coal mining area, it just kind of hit a nerve.

Quoted: Everytime I hear of a beached whale or see it on the news, I am reminded of this episode of Seinfeld..... images2.pictiger.com/images/fa/c5fe0c8769bdf57f4f31c3f7d05ab5fa.jpg with George Costanza, Marine Biologist.

Is that a Titleist?

They killed the damn thing.  When do you save a whale by taking it out of the fucking water and pawing on it by 100s of people talking fast and sticking things in its skin.  they have lived for millions of years and now we need to save one when we see it in water?  what the fuck.  THey should all be shot for the big waste of money and for killing a whale.

Quoted: I think it's sad.

It was bloody sad old boy,...............................quite.

They blamed human sonar from subs and boats for confusing this whale natural sonar, and thats why he went up the river.

Quoted: At least they didn't try to blow it up like they did here a few years ago...

Because I care....

Careful With That C-4, Eugene

Quoted: They blamed human sonar from subs and boats for confusing this whale natural sonar, and thats why he went up the river.

Yeah, I am sure that chasing food up the river had nothing to do with it


[George Costanza]"The sea was angry that day my friend..."[/George Costanza]

Quoted: At least they didn't try to blow it up like they did here a few years ago...

http://www.perp.com/whale/video.html

Quoted: They killed the damn thing.  When do you save a whale by taking it out of the fucking water and pawing on it by 100s of people talking fast and sticking things in its skin.  they have lived for millions of years and now we need to save one when we see it in water?  what the fuck.  THey should all be shot for the big waste of money and for killing a whale.

+1


I took some tree hugging enviro weenies to one of our floating dredges one day down on the river. A ducks chicks were floating close to us and the bank, and the mother duck was across the way freaking out. The weenies were headed over to them to "help them".



If you want to help nature, leave it the fuck alone. Friggin overeducated idiot ass city people.