His father's lack of any reaction at all is entirely possible, but makes it seem suss to me. On the other hand if you did fake it, certainly you'd have some reaction there. So paradoxically it making it seem suss, makes it seem more likely to be real? Gah, leveling.
I think the lack of reaction is plausible: shock/surprise and a naturally-calm demeanor. There's no sense in shouting if there's no one to hear you. He only starts shouting when his son is visible.
(I have been calm in emergencies in the past, so I know I don't "freak out")
If it were me, I probably would have quietly said "fu.." under my breath while I just sat there either waiting for debris to pop up or try not to get eaten myself.
I can't find it now but there is another news report that explains how it's physically impossible for this whale to swallow something that big. At most it could hold a person in its mouth before spitting it out.
I'm not sure that, from the perspective of a non-english-speaking kayaker, I would make a huge distinction between the English words "swallow" and "gargled".
"Viruses are the most abundant biological entity in marine environments. On average there are about ten million of them in one milliliter of seawater."
If enough people get seawater up their nose, it's just a matter of time before there's a crossover event :)
I cannot give statistics but I think viruses in the sea are for marine life and mostly they don't target humans. Also we are already inhaling lots of viruses.
The Wikipedia article says "Most of these viruses are bacteriophages ... Bacteriophages are harmless to plants and animals ... Viruses are the main agents responsible for the rapid destruction of harmful algal blooms"
Likely next to none can infect land mammals. Such viruses would not have a way to replicate to large numbers in seawater, not in land mammals.
Nasal irrigation/sinus rinsing. There are accessories that make it more comfortable too. I think salt water in particular is just because non-isotonic water inside your nose hurts and irritates the membranes.
You can get sterile saline solutions for this purpose, in case you don't want "natural" seawater. Yes, too little (or too much) salt in the water will be painful.
You can just dissolve a teaspoon of salt to half a litre of any warm fresh drinkable water (tapwater is fine if it’s even reasonably good quality). Should be hundreds of times cheaper than sterile solution :)
> CDC officials, citing a 2021 survey, say about one-third of U.S. adults incorrectly think tap water was free of bacteria and other microorganisms. Nearly two-thirds say tap water could be safely used for rinsing their sinuses.
> The CDC recommends using boiled, sterile or distilled water.
I may be biased by the quality of tap water where I live. Pharmacies around here definitely advise just using warm tap water, although they do of course also sell more sterile stuff too.
Sinus rinsing is one of those things that gets recommended a lot without thought. For many conditions, it's great relief, but on the flip side, if you have e.g. inflamed sinuses or the like, it can make your condition considerably worse. As always, it's best to consult your doctor, because there's more nuance to human health than handy tips online would let on.
Thats a very egoistical point of view - every ex-passenger of the titanic was for a moment part of a beautiful ecological bloom on the ocean floor. DeCaprio was the best crab human-carpaccio
It could happen on accident, but to my knowledge killer whales have never done that to a human in the wild. Killer whales have most definitely attacked and killed humans while in captivity. It's also extremely obvious that it was deliberate behavior. Unless you work at SeaWorld, the risk is very low of this happening.
grew up in a fishing comunity, where to call someone a "jonah" was an ultimate condemnation
and thus labeled, such a person could never work on the boats
which was fair, as crews lived, and , died together if something wasn't done right, and certain types of mistakes could doom a whole ship
, and many fisherman, to this day, never learn to swim, as the north atlantic will kill you faster than even a non swimer can splash around on the surface.
I am sure that this video is producing a lot of bemused and pithy comentary on the shore, down home."oh! the lord thunderin, woulds you look at that there you"
I read somewhere that some fishermen didn't learn to swim as they thought it would only prolong the agony. That seems a strange attitude. Surely, the longer you can survive, the more chance you have of being rescued or finding some wreckage to cling to?
If you fall into the north atlantic with just basic clothing on, you're extremely unlikely to survive unless rescue is made immediately and promptly. It is possible, but your time is very limited.
If you have one of those survival suits, your endurance is greatly increased however. I also think they help keep you floating. My understanding is most crews wear them while working on the deck
Most people get confused by the two different phenomenon that will kill you when falling in cold water:
- the thing people have in mind is hypothermia (or more accurately, if you don't have a life jacket drowning because your body can't stay afloat because hypothermia paralyzes your muscles), but as your link point out, it's a pretty slow process: it will depend on water temperature and body composition (the slimmer the worse) but it will still always take at least 15-20 minutes in the least favorable case.
- the second factor, which is much faster to kill, is Cold shock response: basically if you fall into cold water, you're very likely to have incontrollable breathing while underwater, and will drown near instantly. That's why more than half the people falling in cold water will be dead in less than a minute. But if you survived this first phase (very likely if you have a life jacket) then you'll be fine for tens of minutes afterwards.
Always wear a life jacket when on a boat even if you're an Olympic swimmer.
Yes! Well, if you're lucky enough to live in New York (NYC Mesh), Germany (Freifunk) or Spain (Guifi), you can actually access alternatives to the internet :)
What you describe is the entrance to their esophagus. That's why although the kayaker found himself in whale's mouth, the animal could not swallow him and had to spit him out.
To add to this, what you're both describing is true of Baleen Whales, which are filter feeders (which includes the Humpback Whale that this story is about, as well as Blue Whales and others).
But it's not true of all types of whale - Toothed Wales (such as Beaked Whales and Sperm Whales) are apex predators which much larger throats allowing them to eat larger prey.
The whale must have been aware of the size of things it can swallow?
Maybe the whale read Pinocchio and it wasn't just by accident?
Maybe the whale was playing?
Maybe it was a game about dominance? Maybe it was sexual for the whale?
