Join the dots, Aussie-style.
In Sydney, Australia, there's a ferry with a busted propeller and two whales with nasty wounds on their backs - but no one's sure whether the two things are connected.
A humpback and calf were reported just off the harbour entrance on Monday. A few hours later, the crew on board the Sydney ferry Collaroy reported it had hit an unknown object on its run from Circular Quay to Manly, in the western shipping channel. Neither the vessel's master nor the deckhand saw what the Collaroy struck and no passengers reported anything to the crew.
A helicopter and a Whale Watching Sydney vessel soon afterwards spotted a female humpack with a wound near its dorsal fin and its calf with a larger messy gash along its back. The pair left the harbour later that morning and headed north on their annual winter migration.
The National Parks and Wildlife Service (NPWS) could not confirm that Collaroy was responsible for the injuries.
Sydney Ferries says masters and crew of all vessels keep an extra watch for whales during whale season, including having a deckhand on the bridge as an extra pair of eyes. A spokesman said a blade on one of the stern operating propellers (it has propellers at both the bow and stern) had been bent when it had struck the mystery object, but there were no signs of whale blubber or flesh or skin on the prop. NPWS said the calf's wounds did not look like those that would be inflicted by a moving propeller, while the mother's look something like a wound from an orca.
So in the meantime, the burning question of the day remains: what did Collaroy hit? An ocean-going croc? Another Indonesian refugee boat? The remains of Harold Holt? This mystery will keep us as enthralled as Australia's Got Talent!
In Sydney, Australia, there's a ferry with a busted propeller and two whales with nasty wounds on their backs - but no one's sure whether the two things are connected.
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| Gonna need a BIIIIIIIIIIIG Band-Aid! |
A helicopter and a Whale Watching Sydney vessel soon afterwards spotted a female humpack with a wound near its dorsal fin and its calf with a larger messy gash along its back. The pair left the harbour later that morning and headed north on their annual winter migration.
The National Parks and Wildlife Service (NPWS) could not confirm that Collaroy was responsible for the injuries.
Sydney Ferries says masters and crew of all vessels keep an extra watch for whales during whale season, including having a deckhand on the bridge as an extra pair of eyes. A spokesman said a blade on one of the stern operating propellers (it has propellers at both the bow and stern) had been bent when it had struck the mystery object, but there were no signs of whale blubber or flesh or skin on the prop. NPWS said the calf's wounds did not look like those that would be inflicted by a moving propeller, while the mother's look something like a wound from an orca.
So in the meantime, the burning question of the day remains: what did Collaroy hit? An ocean-going croc? Another Indonesian refugee boat? The remains of Harold Holt? This mystery will keep us as enthralled as Australia's Got Talent!
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