JW, I was watching a documentary on the "Black Fish", and it had a bunch of trainers, and a guy from OSHA. There was one trainer, said that very few Orcas in the wild have the floppy dorsal fin, but almost all of the captive whales do. Also it told how when a trainer was killed, it was an accident. At least that is how Seaworld, and Sealand, and all the other attractions, including one in Spain, off the coast, put it. It was trainer error, but never an act of aggression. It told of the guy found dead in the SeaWorld tank. The Whale, had pulled his under wear off, and bit his genitals off!
The one whale that was involved in a lot of the deaths, and injuries, was kept for profit from sperm sales, but instead of keeping it out of the show, it was put back in the shows, and the new trainers, were never told of his violent history. None of the former trainers were fond of Sea World, or Sea Land, or the other whale attractions. It told about the small tanks, and said basically the same thing as Eddie said, that after having the ability to swim a hundred miles in a day, to being kept in a swimming pool, and then in an even smaller tank, at night, that had no light, and were in among other bigger, more aggressive whales, it causes a Psychological distress, and leads to anger. It showed the rakings, and bite marks, and wounds, on the whales, and yet they continued to have them perform. Like I said the Trainers had nothing nice to say about those attractions. Eddie, the Boynton Inlet area,is excellent fishing, for sail fish, and marlin. a friend of mine took me out Marlin fishing, and I had one on, but it broke the leader. I used to fish there quite often, lots of Snook, grouper, snapper. Lots of King Fish, and Spanish Mackeral also. We used to load up a boat with no problem. Good lobster reefs off the Lantana pavillion. My Dad caught really a nice Sailfish, just off the Chillingsworth Steps, in about nine feet of water. He was catching bait, and decided to see if he could catch a Snook, and instead caught the sail fish!
I would love to go with you sometime up those rivers, before I go back to Montana in April. I had a Cousin who was a member of the Palm Beach Long Rifles, and used to do a lot of diving around there, and off Palm Beach. One time he surfaced, and got in the boat in a hurry, and told the rest of the guys he wanted to go home NOW! They said he was white as a sheet! When they finally asked what he saw, he just said a big shark. Well they didn't believe that, as he had been VERY close to some BIG sharks, including Tigers, and Hammerheads. But he never did say what he saw, and he never went diving again, and sold all of his gear. He is dead now, so I guess I will never know what he saw. But he was not one for panic. He was always cool, under stressful circumstances. He saw something that he definitely did not like!
The ocean is beautiful, but like JW said, we know very little about. In fact we know more about the moon, that the ocean. Nice video, PT, nice big ol leather back.
Wayne
