Family of Orca trapped in a net stay with him

[Catherine]

Whales are such wonderful complex animals, with deep family ties. A young Orca was trapped in a fish net. Humans on the scene worked to free him. His family were worried and stayed with him the whole time.


http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-co...-1.2745023

An interesting observation, the whales stayed, but they did not interfere with the people working to free the young whale. They knew the humans meant him no harm.

[Cibach]

Another great story.Why would we think that whales etc. don't have family ties?? They are easily as intelligent as us, just display it in a different way. Weight for weight, if you ignore the blubber, whales brains are generally larger than ours and they survive in places we could definitely not. We should see them as equal but different.

[Tobi]

A wonderful story of how these humans worked to help the whales. And the strength of their love for each other.
Many animals are intelligent and understand when they are being helped, and when they are being threatened.
I also saw a video some time ago, of a man freeing a wild wolf who had become tangled up badly in a wire fence. The wolf held very still as the man worked to free it. It knew what was going on.

[Catherine]

Animals seem to be able to tell a friendly human from an unfriendly one.
They know that humans can help and they will often seek a human to help them in an emergency.

Whales are definitely intelligent. We have no idea how to determine how intelligent they are. We can't compare them to ourselves because they are so different. Different, but equal, maybe so. If we started from that point we might begin to understand them a little.

It does make trained whale shows a problem.What I mean and how this sounds are not quite the same thing. I just can't think of how to put my idea so that is says what I really mean. I don't like any trained animals shows.

[Tobi]

Trained Whale shows have always been a problem. No-one should ever have come up with that idea -and the same goes for Dolphins.
Whales need to be in the open ocean, with their families, and far away from any humans who cannot understand them.

[Catherine]

Quote:Trained Whale shows have always been a problem. No-one should ever have come up with that idea -and the same goes for Dolphins.
Whales need to be in the open ocean, with their families, and far away from any humans who cannot understand them.

If whales are half as smart as they seem to be then what we are doing is slavery. It is not like our relationship with dogs. Dogs want to share space with us and they can live the way we live.

Whales do not want to leave their families to live in a marine park doing stupid tricks. As you say, they want to live in the open ocean and they want to be with family and friends. It is all any of us want. To live free and be happy.