I wish I could speak whale.
April 15, 2015 8:58 AM Subscribe
The Nautilus and her Corps of Exploration are mapping and exploring ocean features from the Gulf Coast up to British Columbia. Yesterday, they found a whale. You can watch live to see what they find next!
Their narrative is pretty funny: "It could be a propeller scar..." / "Don't know - maybe from a Krrrrracken!"
posted by joseph conrad is fully awesome at 9:09 AM on April 15, 2015 [1 favorite]
posted by joseph conrad is fully awesome at 9:09 AM on April 15, 2015 [1 favorite]
"Maybe from a kracken" was my alternate post title, along with OH WOW.
posted by ChuraChura at 9:15 AM on April 15, 2015 [1 favorite]
posted by ChuraChura at 9:15 AM on April 15, 2015 [1 favorite]
Heh. The Okeanos Explorer is currently doing the same thing around Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands. I've now got each up on my second monitor for a cold water/warm water experience. It's like I'm in two oceans at once!
posted by mudpuppie at 9:21 AM on April 15, 2015
posted by mudpuppie at 9:21 AM on April 15, 2015
Er, a gulf and a sea, not two oceans. It all looks the same from here.
posted by mudpuppie at 9:25 AM on April 15, 2015
posted by mudpuppie at 9:25 AM on April 15, 2015
My two reactions to seeing such wonderful creatures these days are "lovely!" and "I'm so sorry."
posted by maxwelton at 9:50 AM on April 15, 2015 [2 favorites]
posted by maxwelton at 9:50 AM on April 15, 2015 [2 favorites]
I've been having a grumpy morning and this was just a perfect pick-me-up. I like them waving with their board. "We come in peace!"
posted by dame at 9:54 AM on April 15, 2015
posted by dame at 9:54 AM on April 15, 2015
Also whenever people are like "let's go to space" I want to be like "... but the ocean is fill of FUCKING WHALES; let's go there instead!" So I'm psyched.
posted by dame at 9:55 AM on April 15, 2015 [1 favorite]
posted by dame at 9:55 AM on April 15, 2015 [1 favorite]
That "dumbo octopus" definitely, definitely, definitely isn't one. It looks more like a vampire squid (though, also, no); I think it's probably a cirrina, but a dumbo?
That and the fact that the first reaction to the sperm whale is to call it a humpback tells me that maybe these people don't know what they're doing.
posted by Sys Rq at 9:58 AM on April 15, 2015 [2 favorites]
That and the fact that the first reaction to the sperm whale is to call it a humpback tells me that maybe these people don't know what they're doing.
posted by Sys Rq at 9:58 AM on April 15, 2015 [2 favorites]
Also whenever people are like "let's go to space" I want to be like "... but the ocean is fill of FUCKING WHALES; let's go there instead!"
We can do both. Star Trek did both.
posted by Atom Eyes at 9:58 AM on April 15, 2015 [2 favorites]
We can do both. Star Trek did both.
posted by Atom Eyes at 9:58 AM on April 15, 2015 [2 favorites]
THIS. IS. AMAZING.
I love how they are all dorking out just as hard as I would, and they study this stuff as their occupation!
posted by Twain Device at 9:59 AM on April 15, 2015
I love how they are all dorking out just as hard as I would, and they study this stuff as their occupation!
posted by Twain Device at 9:59 AM on April 15, 2015
My guess is the quality of the marine biology classification is strongly contingent on who happens to be on watch when they see something and whether they're the biology people or the marine geologists or whatever, but they probably should correct that octosquid video.
posted by ChuraChura at 10:44 AM on April 15, 2015
posted by ChuraChura at 10:44 AM on April 15, 2015
Indeed, space should be after we have figured out how to colonize the seas. Easier to get to, more resources, and if we can't set up a self-sustaining colony just a few miles offshore, how are we going to do it even more remotely?
posted by Blackanvil at 10:45 AM on April 15, 2015
posted by Blackanvil at 10:45 AM on April 15, 2015
These days I work for a company that is literally all about live streaming and the value of it and I was thinking about the explosion of technology that has happened and how it has enabled both private individuals and large scientific endeavors to reach new audiences and what occurred to me was HOLY FUCK WOW THIS IS THE FUCKING COOLEST GOD DAMN THING HOLY SHIT FUCK YEAH.
posted by shmegegge at 11:07 AM on April 15, 2015 [2 favorites]
posted by shmegegge at 11:07 AM on April 15, 2015 [2 favorites]
This is cool. I was just thumbing through "The Arcturus Adventure".
Interesting that we have these images in real time.
posted by clavdivs at 11:15 AM on April 15, 2015
Interesting that we have these images in real time.
posted by clavdivs at 11:15 AM on April 15, 2015
When your website makes people pause and think, "Is this real or a video game," you may have chosen your career well.
posted by Abehammerb Lincoln at 11:29 AM on April 15, 2015 [1 favorite]
posted by Abehammerb Lincoln at 11:29 AM on April 15, 2015 [1 favorite]
Lovecraft, I'm given to understand, since I haven't read anything of his, writes a lot about the horror of the incomprehensible, about things that are so far outside of our ability to understand that the mechanism by which they operate defies any natural or even scientific understanding that we have. Sometimes I get this feeling too. Sometimes I get the uneasy feeling that things beyond comprehension influence my life, that I'm little more than a series of bizarrely fortuitous circumstances, or that the feeling of unease I have is some intuitive recognition of an impending crisis perpetrated by forces that I could never understand enough to speak about, much less control. It's not a novel thought, I know, but it's hard to dispel. Still though, I haven't yet been faced with something so completely outside of my experience that any of these feelings have really been fleshed out. If that whale could talk, I'd love to ask it if it feels the same.
posted by johnnydummkopf at 11:38 AM on April 15, 2015 [1 favorite]
posted by johnnydummkopf at 11:38 AM on April 15, 2015 [1 favorite]
Very cool!
posted by Kevin Street at 1:16 PM on April 15, 2015
posted by Kevin Street at 1:16 PM on April 15, 2015
Fantastic stuff. Do we have any way of knowing the approximate depth of the RUOV when the beast was captured?
posted by eggman at 1:53 PM on April 15, 2015
posted by eggman at 1:53 PM on April 15, 2015
From the whale's point of view, this machine probably hums and whirrs in ways it hasn't ever heard before, and in ways we can't hear. The servos and motors on the RUOV may be putting out patterns of sounds like some kind of bassy ambient minimalist chillcore or something. The whale looks like it is enjoying it.
posted by Monkey0nCrack at 4:32 PM on April 15, 2015 [2 favorites]
posted by Monkey0nCrack at 4:32 PM on April 15, 2015 [2 favorites]
Wow, just stunning. This is wonderful!
posted by Klaxon Aoooogah at 5:27 PM on April 15, 2015
posted by Klaxon Aoooogah at 5:27 PM on April 15, 2015
Holy crap, whale! Also, man, those are some gleeful marine nerds nerding the fuck out.
posted by rmd1023 at 6:26 PM on April 15, 2015
posted by rmd1023 at 6:26 PM on April 15, 2015
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posted by cortex at 9:02 AM on April 15, 2015 [4 favorites]