Meanwhile, Gophers Claim Road “Accidents” Remain Ignored

64 Replies to “Meanwhile, Gophers Claim Road “Accidents” Remain Ignored”

1. WHO CARES!!!!

2. I had a friend who served on HMCS Athabaskan, in the 70’s. He said it wasn’t uncommon to collide with whales. It probably felt a lot like hitting a gopher with a super-duty.
   What is a necropsy going to accomplish? Will they have to install new traffic signals?

3. I for one would like to see this poor whale (name unknown) memorialized as a symbol of something or other. Eventually someone will get to look back and laugh.

4. Isn’t it obvious? It died from underfunding.

5. A goodly amount of crab food in that whale

6. …we have strict whale avoidance procedures in place when our ships are in the vicinity…
   I have my own procedures when I spot a gopher on the road.

7. What must be done is clear. All ships must be banned from the ocean.

8. Was it an honour killing?

9. Obviously a drug running whale. Carcass probably packed with heroin or cocaine.

10. Was there a Titleist lodged in its blow-hole? And does Jean Chretien have an alibi?

11. Mystery Meat , if they ban all the ships and remove them from the oceans all that displaced water the ships are responsible for will cause the ocean levels to drop . Then there’ll be beached whales everywhere with gulls and crows pecking out their eyballs , not to mention every beach on earth will smell like Toronto .

12. Well, the Americans have Michael Jackson – we have to make do with a whale. But the same questions can
    be asked – accident, killing by a different species
    (us), whaleslaughter, or murder? My bet is that the
    unfortunate deceased whale was maneuvered by his
    “buddies” so that the ship would run him down.
    A crime without evidence, but not without
    precedent!

13. Suzuki’s Green industry:
    “We HAVE to stop the inhuman CRUISE industry, no matter what the economic costs. No I don’t work in travel…., what does that have to do with anything?

14. Ha! On our Alberta road trip last year we made a point out of sighting all “wildlife”, domesticated or not. Somewheres outside of Drumheller I was about to announce “Gopher!” when said gopher launched itself under my front wheels. When my daughter asked “What was that Daddy?”, I said never mind …

15. Rumor has it the Governess General was craving …..

16. Another damn whale talking on the cell phone when he should have been paying attention to where he was going.

17. Missing parts of the headline.
    “Traces of marijuana found at the scene.”
    “Alcohol suspected in crash”.
    “The whale had just gone through a difficult divorce”
    “Straight A student killed in crash with cruise ship”.
    “The whale was known to be a loner”.
    “HRC to investigate why no white whales are ever hit by cruise ships”.
    “Gay rage suspected in whale death”.
    Ok. I’ll stop.

18. John Lewis: the whale’s nose was missing?

19. were they whale watching?

20. Posted by: eastern paul at July 26, 2009 4:33 PM
    Well-met, EP! There’s far too much truth in that statement: “if it has absolutely no impact on me or my life, why then get rid of it”
    mhb23re

21. This reminds me of an earlier incident where an autopsy showed a dead wail had died of Aids. Apparently it had been bumped by a ferry.

22. Doh!!! Wail=whale:0)

23. A whale is not a fish.

24. What a waste of fine oil!

25. Paulstuff:
    Are you sure you don’t mean bumped by a fairy?
    Perhaps you were just being politically correct, and I’m too pedantic.

26. Isn’t this kind of like finding half a pigeon lodged in your front bumper?

27. Essex incident, type of Jihad, for incursion into
    his corner of the world ?

28. Ever since Isaw this I have been trying to find a particular picture, but I guess it never made it to the web.
    About 10 years ago, one of the USN’s Spruance class destroyers got put into drydock. When they emptied the water out they found out why the active sonar was performing so badly. There was a shark cooked to the sonar dome.
    The old SQS 26 set put out a LOT of power, actually capable of boiling the water around it if stationary.

29. I smell a Royal Comission… No wait, It IS Toronto.

30. the sensible thing to do is ban all sharpedged bows on all boats, setup a bow-registry,…

31. Lets see, cruise ship, gopher… hey, y’all been watching Love boat reruns?

32. What was particularly disturbing was that on the CBC website, the number of reader comments this story generated outnumbered the comments made concerning the dead woman that was pulled out of the Fraser river on the same day, by approximately 25 to 1.

33. mmmmmm Lauren Tewes………….. sigh

34. Geez…….. whats the big deal, maybe it just got hit by the boat ….everything does die eventually anyways………unless of course it is Tommy Dougles……who “Ain’t Dead Enough”

35. Missing part of the NYT headline, with apologies to gord.
    Cows, calves hit hardest

36. This is a clear case of failure to yield to on-coming traffic. It happens.

37. Perhaps the carcass should be tipped onto the beach chez Suzuki on Quadra Island where it could then rot sustainably back into the local ecosystem?

38. With the oceans rising because of AGW , could someone in Calgary recommend a 4×4 shop that has a grille that will hold up to these pesky buggers ?
    …. for the children , of course .

39. If only they had that $2 ultrasonic whistle .

40. A whale fell overboard?
    Didn’t someone notice she was missing in the buffet line?

41. But Kate, this is a Large Dead Animal

42. The Whale was J-walking.
    BTW Kate, a Whale is not a fish; and Wales is not a country; merely a principality 🙂
    Oh dear, I am having a wail of a time.

43. MsMew @6:04 – “a whale is not a fish”.
    I bet Kate was hoping she’d catch just one painfully literal-minded interloper on that one. Nice kitty.
    BTW did they really not notice they were pushing “70 tonnes” of extra weight?

44. RW – well of course it’s a principality; that’s why there’s a Prince of Whales, duh.

45. Dead mamal in fact …. but who cares anyway?
    Stupid useless reporters……..

46. Lucky bastard , it was this , or Friedman’s carbon footprint.

47. I had a friend who served on HMCS Athabaskan, in the 70’s. -dp
    One of my brothers, both of whom have been military, served on the destroyer HMCS Athabee in GWI.
    I also knew a guy who was on the HMCS Terra Nova, simultaneously.
    Recently, my brother went pirate-hunting on the Frigate Winnipeg… 🙂

48. I read Hemingway’s “The Old Man and the Sea.” I would have guessed that the sharks would have chewed up that whale before landing at Vanouver.
    Years ago, I was driving a 1966 Ford Fairlaine. I got a cat caught in the fanbelt, the bloody cat was dragging under my car–his rear legs and tail were hitting the pavement. At 12:00 Noon, I drive up to a “Burger Baron” in Moose Jaw Sk. The place was filled with patrons. To this that was one of my “embarrassing moments”

49. BTW, I have a pic of a beluga whale my dad took, somewhere amongst the pix from the post-WWII/Cold War era… Lucky mammal, didn’t get hit by the CGS Edward Cornwallis, except by my dad’s Brownie…

50. “Burger Baron” in Moose Jaw? Must be relatively new, never heard of it. I recall going to the “Bonanza” there… Ah, the weekend road trips in the ’75 Volvo wagon… couldn’t duplicate the past-the-top-of-the-incline “ahhhh” moments in N.B. that only occured on the rolling SK. highways. Absolutely loved the transportation museum in M.J…