Incompetent whale watching boat operation

[mbowers]

Good to see somebody make one of them accountable for reckless boating.

"Prince of Whales Holdings Ltd. was found to have operated its vessel in an incompetent manner"

https://www.nsnews.com/highlights/bc-whale-watching-operator-owes-boater-new-barbecue-7358168

 

[ziggy]

They seem to hot rod around on these whale watching boats, I guess to give their clients a thrill. I have noticed they have very little respect for other boaters. Numerous times I’ve felt they could have given other boaters more space or slowed down.

 

[Rockfish]

They seem to hot rod around on these whale watching boats, I guess to give their clients a thrill. I have noticed they have very little respect for other boaters. Numerous times I’ve felt they could have given other boaters more space or slowed down.

I would agree with that. Some years back I took my nephew to fish off the end of the Victoria Breakwater. We were down on the rock slabs rather close to the waterline when one of the whale watching boats came into the harbour by rounding the end of the breakwater very close in at full throttle which got us a bit wet. The irony was that right behind us on the wall at the end of the breakwater is a sigh that that says 7 knots max.

In my experience there are few and probably no other boats in JDF that go as fast as some of the whale watching boats. Some seem to have ocean racing type hulls with the massive rooster tails out the back. They can be going twice or even three times as fast as many of the Rec. boats when we are traveling. I remember seeing one of the fast whale watching ribs in the old Mercury Marine shop yard that had hit a log at high speed. One of the heavy metal motor mounts was broken right in half and the motor was gone. The other outboard was still on the boat, but all smashed up. Some of the whale watcher ribs appear as fast as anything the Military or RCMP are using and them some and they are not as fast as the large ocean racer type hulls. If they can't see or avoid a log at flat out high performance rib or ocean racer hull speeds, how could they avoid a Humpback whale barely on the surface with just a little swirl showing?
I am thinking time is money. Go as fast as you can to the whales, cruise around a little, then as fast as you can back to the dock to pick up the next batch of tourists and yes, the ultra high speed thrill ride for the tourists may be a factor. Like being taken for a ride in a race car on the Nuerburg Ring.

 

[agentaqua]

And the self-appointed "protectors" get special & unique permission to be inside the whale avoidance buffer rules that everyone else has to abide by and earn money off selling that thrill to tourists.

 

[sly_karma]

Vultures. Nonstop presence around the whales, as long as 12 hours some days. Noise in the water. Playing games, innocently claiming the whales approached them, yet reading the drift and mammal travel then positioning themselves so this "accident" happens repeatedly. Parasites with holier than thou T shirts (on sale now!).