Latest news with #MobyDick
Chicago Tribune
3 days ago
- Entertainment
- Chicago Tribune
Column: Thar she blows! Chicago artist and writer Dmitry Samarov brings ‘Moby-Dick' back to life
Moby Dick was a whale, a very big whale. It is also a book, a very big book, written by Herman Melville and published in 1851. It was initially a commercial failure, this tale of Captain Ahab on a whaling ship named the Pequod on his mad quest for vengeance on the giant white sperm whale of the title that had chomped off Ahab's leg on a previous encounter. The story's narrator, a seaman along for the journey, opens with what is arguably the most famous first line in English literary history, 'Call me Ishmael.' 'Moby-Dick,' the book, entered the life of artist and writer Dmitry Samarov two decades ago when he was 33. 'I was going through a divorce and came upon a cheap paperback copy of the book,' he says. 'It was a crazy time for me and I was grasping at anything that might help me. This novel was a life raft and I felt lucky to be among the few who had not been assigned to read it in high school, so I wasn't spoiled by having to do it for homework.' And so he was helped and life moved on. But in the days following the bloody events of Nov. 4, 2024, in Gaza that rattled this world, Samarov was particularly affected. He set about trying to 'forget the news.' He canceled his subscriptions to newspapers. Never a tech aficionado, he severed his remaining internet ties so there was 'no headline-blaring app (following) me out the door.' Samarov came to the United States from his native Russia in 1978 when he was 7. He lived first in Boston and then came here. He went to the School of the Art Institute. He started driving a cab. He wrote. He made art. In 2006, he started writing an illustrated blog about his behind-the-wheel experiences. This attracted the folks at the University of Chicago Press, and that led to 'Hack: Stories from a Chicago Cab' (2011) and 'Where To? A Hack Memoir' (2014). His next book arrived in 2019, 'Music to My Eyes,' a gathering of drawings and writing handsomely published by the local Tortoise Books. 'For more than 30 years, I have been bringing my sketchbook to concerts and drawing the performers on stage,' he said. I wrote of it: 'His writing has matured over the years and in wonderfully compelling ways his new book can be read as a memoir, for in it he shares stories that help explain why and how music has, as he put it, 'haunted my entire life.'' He lives in Bridgeport and makes his living by working some fill-in bar shifts at the Rainbo Club and a couple of shifts at Tangible Books, near his apartment. 'My life is all freelance and flexible,' he told me some time ago. 'The goal is total unemployment.' Now, on to the latest book, seeded by an article Samarov read about, as he puts it, 'tech hucksters claiming to make millions publishing new versions of classics from the public domain.' He was not at all interested in 'tricking anyone into paying me $15.99 for a cut-and-paste reprint of some dusty tome.' He discovered Project Gutenberg, the internet site that allows people to download books or read them online at no cost. It offers some of the world's great literature, focused on older works for which U.S. copyright has expired. Near the top of its most-downloaded list, Samarov found his old friend, 'Moby-Dick.' And so he got to work. In his short but lively 'Designers Note' at the book's end, he gives some of the details, and he tells me one of his goals with this project is 'to introduce it to younger people.' He writes that he feels the novel is 'as relevant as any news story.' The book is handsomely published by Samarov's friends at local publisher Maudlin House and is available there and elsewhere for $25, not at all bad for a 650-page book. Melville dedicated 'Moby-Dick' to his great friend, novelist Nathaniel Hawthorne. Samarov dedicates this new edition to Harry Synder, the late manager of a theater in Boston about whom Samarov writes elsewhere, 'Harry and I didn't talk much about art over the 35-plus years of our friendship but he showed me how to carry myself in the world without neurotically making sure anyone who crossed my path knew of my 'true calling.' He was a fully-rounded person first but an artist to the core.' The whale is on the cover of this new edition, striking in black and white, though to me, he appears to be smiling. 'I was inspired by scrimshaw art,' says Samarov, then explaining that art form that is created by engraving or carving on such whale parts as bones and teeth. There are nearly 100 drawings of people, boats, buildings, implements, ropes in knots and other items. There is a Samarov self-portrait and a drawing of Melville, accompanied by Samarov's writing, 'I wonder what (Melville) would make of there now being over 7,000 versions of his masterpiece. … I'd like to believe he'd judge the version you hold in your hands worthwhile and not a cheap cash grab.' Far be it from me to dip into Melville's mind, but I think Samarov's right.
The Age
30-05-2025
- Politics
- The Age
We need a police summit on knife crime. Oh, yes, we've already had one
We need cops who police youth gangs, PSOs at railway stations, police who patrol in divisional vans and station bosses to share their practical experiences, because it is only through knowing the problem that we can deal with it. Loading Well, that is precisely what happened in December 2022. The result? Zip-a-dee-doo-dah. At the summit, police discussed South Australian weapons prohibition orders (WPOs). They are similar to our firearm prohibition orders. In SA, if a person has been convicted of a weapons-related offence and the police commissioner reasonably believes the person is a danger to life or property, they are hit with a three-year WPO. Police can 'detain and search a person who the police officer reasonably suspects is a person to whom a weapons prohibition order applies for prohibited weapons ... stop, detain and search a vehicle, vessel or aircraft [connected to the suspect] ... enter and search premises for prohibited weapons'. Wouldn't it make more sense to target those convicted of using or carrying weapons rather than waiting to try to break up knife fights? In NSW, they have drug supply prohibition orders to stop and search anyone convicted of selling drugs. Police can search their car or any property associated with them. Another suggestion at the police knife conference that has disappeared under the waves like Moby Dick was to beef up the force's semi-secret VPMAC (Victoria Police Monitor Assessment Centre). It is used to follow trends to get in front of the game – such as the movements of a home-invading gang. It can also watch social media as the gangs talk online and often organise their fights on the internet. More funds mean more staff and a greater chance of cutting off the gangs before they cut each other. But there are no more funds, with the police budget to be cut. Increasingly, states across Australia are introducing Jack's Law – a powerful weapon for police that came into existence because of a tragedy. When Brett and Belinda Beasley lost their 17-year-old son Jack to a knife attack in Surfers Paradise in December 2019, they were determined to use his death to reform laws. After dozens of rounds of lobbying, they persuaded the Queensland government to trial Jack's Law. In Surfers Paradise, police trialled hand-held wands to randomly search people for edged weapons. The initiative has now been expanded to all public places in Queensland. Since it began, police have conducted more than 100,000 scans, with more than 2800 people charged and 1058 weapons seized. Brett Beasley says: 'I have been trying to help Victoria, but your premier won't listen. She won't meet with me. 'We have met with Victoria Police, and they absolutely love Jack's Law. It has been passed with bipartisan support in Queensland, NSW, WA and Tasmania, but for some reason we can't get it over the line in Victoria. 'It is no different to a random breath test. You are not even touched by the wand, and it doesn't even touch you. It has been phenomenally successful.' In Victoria, MCC members going to the footy are wand-searched in case they have a concealed cheese knife for the charcuterie board, but a gang member on a railway station is not checked for a myki card, let alone a machete. Loading Rule No.2 Reform comes in three steps: need, will and action. In the area of violent crime there is a need, there is even the political will, but too often the action is diluted when the legislation is written. Take Jack's Law. Victim input, police support plus political will equals an effective law. So why not here? One reason is the Justice Department is a cordial factory in which the concentrate is diluted to suit the tastebuds of those with a particular agenda. When cops showed some in the Justice Department CCTV of a fatal knife attack, it resulted in a complaint the images were too graphic. I imagine the victim would agree. If he wasn't already dead. In the two-year tobacco war there have been 141 arson attacks and seven homicides. Under laws to be introduced later this year, we will have a tobacco regulatory body (costing $65 million) with about 10 unarmed enforcement officers to police 1300 tobacco shops selling illegal products. It is like sending a platoon of lollipop ladies with stop-go signs to take on the Roman legions. Gangster Kaz Hamad orders hits from Iraq and is making $1 million a month just from the protection side of his business. Will he be deterred by a stern letter from an enforcement officer? Illegal cigarettes are about $15 a packet compared with about $40 a packet for the legal ones. Government taxes have created the market, people like Hamad are just exploiting it. Meanwhile, the government's anti-bikie laws will be toughened later this year with the Criminal Organisations Control Amendment Act 2024. The laws are designed to stop outlaw bikies wearing and displaying their colours, which are often used to intimidate. A noble idea, but will it work? Police Minister Anthony Carbines is talking tough: ' Organised crime groups and bikie gangs are on notice – we won't stand for intimidation and neither will Victoria Police, who won't hesitate to use these new laws to keep Victorians safe.' Police wanted the law to reflect interstate legislation, under which wearing banned bikie colours is an indictable offence. Yet in Victoria it will be a summary offence. This means as long as the suspect provides his name and address, he will not be arrested but will receive a summons in the post. Under the law, a police officer may direct a person to stop displaying bikie insignia. Police on the road believe a bikie will simply need to turn their jacket inside out, which means they will be displaying the logos 'Made in Thailand' and 'Dry clean only'. The law excludes tattoos, but what about temporary tattoos or body art? Will police lick the biceps of bikies to see if tattoos are permanent? Or will it be a case of not giving a rat's about tatts and don't create a stink about ink? Police are preparing dossiers on outlaw motorcycle gangs to have them declared organised crime groups. In Queensland, there are 26. In Victoria, the top seven are likely to be the Hells Angels, Mongols, Rebels, Finks, Comancheros, Black Uhlans and Bandidos. History shows the gangs that are not mentioned feel miffed and often ring police to complain. In that business if you are bad, you want to be bad to the bone. Rule No.3 Laws alone don't change behaviour. It is an offence to sell a knife to a person under the age of 18, with proof of age required. It comes as no surprise that the average blade-wielding offender may be more inclined to steal a knife than provide a name, address, three forms of identification and a Frequent Flyer number at the checkout. Anything above a butter knife should be kept in a locked cabinet so it can't be shoplifted. What is indefensible is the lack of appetite for a logical, rational and cool-headed review of crime. Loading When then-deputy commissioner Ross Guenther told this column last year that the criminal justice system needed to embrace reform, the government lost both its marbles and the bag they came in. He said: 'The system is not suited for victims or offenders. Why do self-interest groups and self-described experts have so much sway over issues that impact the whole community? Do we adequately respond to the needs of victims?'
Sydney Morning Herald
30-05-2025
- Politics
- Sydney Morning Herald
We need a police summit on knife crime. Oh, yes, we've already had one
We need cops who police youth gangs, PSOs at railway stations, police who patrol in divisional vans and station bosses to share their practical experiences, because it is only through knowing the problem that we can deal with it. Loading Well, that is precisely what happened in December 2022. The result? Zip-a-dee-doo-dah. At the summit, police discussed South Australian weapons prohibition orders (WPOs). They are similar to our firearm prohibition orders. In SA, if a person has been convicted of a weapons-related offence and the police commissioner reasonably believes the person is a danger to life or property, they are hit with a three-year WPO. Police can 'detain and search a person who the police officer reasonably suspects is a person to whom a weapons prohibition order applies for prohibited weapons ... stop, detain and search a vehicle, vessel or aircraft [connected to the suspect] ... enter and search premises for prohibited weapons'. Wouldn't it make more sense to target those convicted of using or carrying weapons rather than waiting to try to break up knife fights? In NSW, they have drug supply prohibition orders to stop and search anyone convicted of selling drugs. Police can search their car or any property associated with them. Another suggestion at the police knife conference that has disappeared under the waves like Moby Dick was to beef up the force's semi-secret VPMAC (Victoria Police Monitor Assessment Centre). It is used to follow trends to get in front of the game – such as the movements of a home-invading gang. It can also watch social media as the gangs talk online and often organise their fights on the internet. More funds mean more staff and a greater chance of cutting off the gangs before they cut each other. But there are no more funds, with the police budget to be cut. Increasingly, states across Australia are introducing Jack's Law – a powerful weapon for police that came into existence because of a tragedy. When Brett and Belinda Beasley lost their 17-year-old son Jack to a knife attack in Surfers Paradise in December 2019, they were determined to use his death to reform laws. After dozens of rounds of lobbying, they persuaded the Queensland government to trial Jack's Law. In Surfers Paradise, police trialled hand-held wands to randomly search people for edged weapons. The initiative has now been expanded to all public places in Queensland. Since it began, police have conducted more than 100,000 scans, with more than 2800 people charged and 1058 weapons seized. Brett Beasley says: 'I have been trying to help Victoria, but your premier won't listen. She won't meet with me. 'We have met with Victoria Police, and they absolutely love Jack's Law. It has been passed with bipartisan support in Queensland, NSW, WA and Tasmania, but for some reason we can't get it over the line in Victoria. 'It is no different to a random breath test. You are not even touched by the wand, and it doesn't even touch you. It has been phenomenally successful.' In Victoria, MCC members going to the footy are wand-searched in case they have a concealed cheese knife for the charcuterie board, but a gang member on a railway station is not checked for a myki card, let alone a machete. Loading Rule No.2 Reform comes in three steps: need, will and action. In the area of violent crime there is a need, there is even the political will, but too often the action is diluted when the legislation is written. Take Jack's Law. Victim input, police support plus political will equals an effective law. So why not here? One reason is the Justice Department is a cordial factory in which the concentrate is diluted to suit the tastebuds of those with a particular agenda. When cops showed some in the Justice Department CCTV of a fatal knife attack, it resulted in a complaint the images were too graphic. I imagine the victim would agree. If he wasn't already dead. In the two-year tobacco war there have been 141 arson attacks and seven homicides. Under laws to be introduced later this year, we will have a tobacco regulatory body (costing $65 million) with about 10 unarmed enforcement officers to police 1300 tobacco shops selling illegal products. It is like sending a platoon of lollipop ladies with stop-go signs to take on the Roman legions. Gangster Kaz Hamad orders hits from Iraq and is making $1 million a month just from the protection side of his business. Will he be deterred by a stern letter from an enforcement officer? Illegal cigarettes are about $15 a packet compared with about $40 a packet for the legal ones. Government taxes have created the market, people like Hamad are just exploiting it. Meanwhile, the government's anti-bikie laws will be toughened later this year with the Criminal Organisations Control Amendment Act 2024. The laws are designed to stop outlaw bikies wearing and displaying their colours, which are often used to intimidate. A noble idea, but will it work? Police Minister Anthony Carbines is talking tough: ' Organised crime groups and bikie gangs are on notice – we won't stand for intimidation and neither will Victoria Police, who won't hesitate to use these new laws to keep Victorians safe.' Police wanted the law to reflect interstate legislation, under which wearing banned bikie colours is an indictable offence. Yet in Victoria it will be a summary offence. This means as long as the suspect provides his name and address, he will not be arrested but will receive a summons in the post. Under the law, a police officer may direct a person to stop displaying bikie insignia. Police on the road believe a bikie will simply need to turn their jacket inside out, which means they will be displaying the logos 'Made in Thailand' and 'Dry clean only'. The law excludes tattoos, but what about temporary tattoos or body art? Will police lick the biceps of bikies to see if tattoos are permanent? Or will it be a case of not giving a rat's about tatts and don't create a stink about ink? Police are preparing dossiers on outlaw motorcycle gangs to have them declared organised crime groups. In Queensland, there are 26. In Victoria, the top seven are likely to be the Hells Angels, Mongols, Rebels, Finks, Comancheros, Black Uhlans and Bandidos. History shows the gangs that are not mentioned feel miffed and often ring police to complain. In that business if you are bad, you want to be bad to the bone. Rule No.3 Laws alone don't change behaviour. It is an offence to sell a knife to a person under the age of 18, with proof of age required. It comes as no surprise that the average blade-wielding offender may be more inclined to steal a knife than provide a name, address, three forms of identification and a Frequent Flyer number at the checkout. Anything above a butter knife should be kept in a locked cabinet so it can't be shoplifted. What is indefensible is the lack of appetite for a logical, rational and cool-headed review of crime. Loading When then-deputy commissioner Ross Guenther told this column last year that the criminal justice system needed to embrace reform, the government lost both its marbles and the bag they came in. He said: 'The system is not suited for victims or offenders. Why do self-interest groups and self-described experts have so much sway over issues that impact the whole community? Do we adequately respond to the needs of victims?'
Newsroom
26-05-2025
- General
- Newsroom
On the death of a whale
One day a sperm whale landed on my doorstep. On March 17, 1996, one of the wildest, greyest, wind whipped nor 'wester days imaginable, with elephantine breakers crashing as far as the eye could see, three sperm whales stranded along the length of Paekākāriki beach. One of them beached directly below our seafront cottage at around 11am. My four-year-old daughter and her friend Rata spotted what looked like an enormous whale's tail poking up over the seawall. We charged across the road to find a gigantic whale, that uniquely shaped fluke aloft, lying on the beach. News of the stranding spread like wildfire and the wider community quickly gathered on this surreal Sunday. It was a sperm whale (Physeter macrocephalus, or 'the big-headed blower,' parāoa in Māori, cachalot in French). It turned out to be one of a male teenage triad. Our poor colossus perished slowly over several hours, collapsing in on itself as onlookers gathered, its tail occasionally whacking the ground, its blowing becoming weaker and less frequent. At one point, several strong men lined up along the whale's towering and slippery flank, perilously, futilely, trying to keep it aloft to protect its blowhole from being immersed, while the waves surged against them. A chorus of groans arose each time a wave hit, onlookers fearful that the men would be crushed as the whale rolled slightly at the mercy of the pounding surf. A woman with long flowing hair waded out and placed a bouquet of flowers on its nose. Sperm whales may not be pretty, but they are unique and majestic. Their noses, which are up to a third of their body length, serve as powerful sonar instruments. Author and naturalist Kennedy Warne describes them as 'strange-looking animals. The blunt submarine prow, the narrow flaplike jaw, the puny flippers, the skin, as wrinkled and apparently ill-fitting as a rhinoceros's'. It was tragic but extraordinary to view such a magnificent creature up close, although so cruelly out of its natural element. In Moby Dick, Herman Melville laments the impossibility of viewing a sperm whale in its entirety unless one goes whaling. Further north lay two more parāoa. There were urgent discussions between DoC and Massey University's veterinary department about euthanasia but, in the end, the whales died naturally. After 'our whale' took its last breath around 3.30pm, diminished in size and spirit, we walked up the beach to see one of its dead co-stranders. Dead by nightfall, our whale was the only one of the three washed out to sea overnight. Just as shocking as its arrival, and its prolonged, sinking death – its ribs slowly crushed by its own body weight over several hours and the waves covering its blowhole – was its disappearance. Feeling a parental protectiveness over this dead teenage creature of the deep, I went out in the night to check on it. Still discernible then in the shallow, moonlit waves, by morning it had gone, but where? Experiencing something akin to grief, we marvelled at the power of the ocean to remove such an argosy. Indicative of the strength of the local tidal system, our cetacean's carcass washed up on Wellington's Mākara beach the next day. Theories about the group stranding did the rounds. Had their navigation systems gone awry in the challenging storm conditions or were the others caring for one of their own who had literally lost their way in life? Was one whale sick or in trouble and did its distress calls cause the others to stay close as it drifted into the shallows, resulting in a mass marooning? Were these teenagers en route from the Cook Strait's dark canyons and deep crevices – the hunting ground for their favourite takeaway squid – to party lands in the Rauoterangi Channel that runs between Kapiti Island and the Paraparaumu / Waikanae coast? Whale specialist Anton van Helden attended the strandings. He emailed me recently, and wrote, 'As adolescent males they are not strictly following a migration pattern and are probably just kicking around from place to place, so might even just have been reasonably local in Cook Strait or Nicholson Canyon, and following prey shifts through the area.' Apparently, males between three and 15 years of age leave the natal group to team up with other young males, sometimes leading to co-stranding, in contrast to mothers and daughters who stick together for life. Sounding a lot like humans, the male of the species becomes increasingly solitary as they age, tending to roam further afield. With a touch of anthropomorphism, DoC's whale stranding database recorded their prior behaviour as being 'two whales seen to be 'helping' a third whale'. This altruism and herd instinct of sperm whales was often capitalised on by grizzled whalers of yore. Harpoon one and wait in the blood-thickening sea until others arrive to help their wounded comrade; then there would be the best part of the herd for the killing. Sperm whales usually frequent deep oceanic waters. They are among those whales predisposed to stranding, sometimes in mass. Aotearoa, which sits astride the great whales' migration route on their seasonal journeys to and from Antarctica, is a global marooning hot spot. Marine mammal scientist, Martin Cawthorn, notes that New Zealand's west coast, with its lethal mix of wild seas and shallow ocean bed, is notorious for strandings. Studies suggest this might be due to how sperm whales navigate, which is through a complex clicking system called echolocation. This appears to not work so well on gently sloping beaches compared to steep, shingle boulder beaches or rocky coasts. Our whale is now just a sad statistic: one of 189 sperm whales recorded beached on New Zealand shores between 1978 and 2004. We were lucky the sea took our whale away. While agencies and iwi deliberated over the ownership, use and disposal/burial of their corpses, a distinctive, blubbery reek permeated the village's north end; some locals reporting retching on going outside. 'Our poor colossus perished slowly over several hours…' Photo by Faye Rodgers A collective melancholy followed the whales' demise. Bad enough to witness their drawn-out death, but preferable to the past when they were ruthlessly hunted and harpooned in large numbers with the arrival of European whalers and their boats or occasionally carved up alive when beached by hungry coastal dwellers. In the 18th and 19th centuries, though, whales tended to be regarded as aggressive, fierce, even malicious, monsters of the deep, not gentle and tragic giants. A report in the Whanganui Herald gave a pejorative description of a whale which washed up in the same vicinity 80-odd years earlier, on September 10, 1917: 'A large whale drifted ashore at Pukerua, near Paekākāriki, last week and gave the Maoris who live in the vicinity quite a busy time for a few days. The huge monster was 50 feet in length and had a tail 12 feet across. It was dead when found and had drifted from some of the whaling stations in the Sounds. Millions of little blind eels came in with the monster.' The 1996 Paekākāriki event heralded a new understanding among government agencies, NGOs, and iwi, by clarifying tikanga and protocols for future strandings. But the process was far from smooth. It took time for Māori (Ngāti Haumia, Ngāti Toa and Te Ati Awa Whakarongotai), DoC and researchers, to reach agreement on the handling and proprietary rights over the whales' oil, teeth, and jaw bones, traditionally used for carving. Mistakes were made, such as a poorly considered tooth extraction from one of the carcasses amid the tensions over what constituted correct tikanga, protocol, and government agencies' research wants. While debates about correct tikanga and protocol carried on, DoC, the Kapiti Coast District Council and iwi sought an agreement on how to dispose/bury the enormous carcasses. Decomposing whales create a biohazard risk because of the buildup of noxious gases and bacteria, sometimes even exploding into blubber and body parts. But burial is often problematic, delaying decomposition. Current practice, where practical, is to tow the bodies out to sea to break down naturally in the marine environment; impossible with an up to 55-ton whale. So once iwi removed the jawbone, the stranded whales were cut up and buried or transported elsewhere for disposal. Small hunks of blubber were later found in the Wainui stream, while one local was flabbergasted at the sight of an enormous whale tale hanging off the back of a truck driving past his gate. In 2013, the whale wrangle resurfaced after another sperm whale stranded on Paraparaumu Beach. Angry scenes ensued as the corpse was cut up on the beach. The traditional right of Māori to harvest the whale's taonga was pitted against the public health and emotional effects of a dissection, seen by some as 'butchering', in the public domain. A Kapiti Coast District Councillor called for a review of the 1996 protocols by DoC, iwi and the council, pointing out a lack of understanding of the spiritual and cultural relationship between coastal iwi and whales, and the need for local iwi to manage public sensitivity better. My daughter's friend, the-then preschooler Rata, went on to become a Ngāi Tahu marine biologist with a research interest in the connection of Māori to whales. As for the whales themselves, and symbolic of the move towards personhood, local Māori named the three Paekakariki parāoa, Haumia Te Wai, Wainui, and Ruatau, our Mākara bound whale. I used to be slightly sceptical about Save the Whales' selective speciesism, its seeming elevation of cetaceans over other animals. But to see a creature so magnificent, to look in its eye, feel its humanity, sense its intelligence, yet its helplessness, felt visceral. But just as real was its otherness, its ultimate, slippery unknowingness.
Scottish Sun
22-05-2025
- Scottish Sun
Shocking moment giant 50ft sperm whale is found on Brit holiday beach – before LORRY needed to tow 35-tonne beast away
Click to share on X/Twitter (Opens in new window) Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window) THIS is the shocking moment a gargantuan 50-foot, 35-tonne sperm whale is found on a Brit holiday beach before needing to get towed away by a lorry due to its size. The enormous marine mammal had apparently suffered a fatal strike to the head by a passing vessel in tourist hotspot Tenerife, Spain. Sign up for Scottish Sun newsletter Sign up 5 The enormous marine mammal had apparently suffered a fatal strike to the head by a passing vessel Credit: Jam Press 5 A huge sperm whale washed up on a beach at a holiday hotspot popular with Brits Credit: Jam Press 5 The enormous corpse was lifted off the beach by a lorry Credit: Jam Press A Brit expat spotted the gargantuan whale washed up on the beach outside his apartment yesterday morning. The 51-year-old said he walked to the front window 'with his coffee in hand and was stumped to see a whale on the small beach below my apartment'. He added: 'It's not every day you find a whale washed up on your doorstep.' Shocking footage shows the massive creature - which are often between 15 to 18 metres long - laying on the beach. read more news WHITE WHALE Watch rare vid of albino killer whale as real-life Moby Dick breaches waves Confused locals are seen approaching the mammal before touching its tail. The sperm whale was already dead by the time its massive carcass was swept ashore. Authorities scrambled quickly to the scene to take samples of the marine mammal. The enormous corpse was lifted off the beach by a lorry due to its size, before being taken away for incineration. It was the fourth whale to wash ashore in the Canary Islands this month alone. A whale was swept ashore in the tourist town of Playa de las Américas last Friday. Abandoned theme park left 'frozen in time' where stranded Orca whales and bottlenose dolphins have been left to rot Two others appeared dead on the coast of Gran Canaria earlier this month. Over 30 marine mammal species live in Canarian waters, including dolphins, pilot whales, and sperm whales. The Canary Islands record an average of 50 to 60 marine creature strandings each year, caused by disease, pollution, collisions, or acoustic disorientation. Scientists have possibly identified the first species other than humans to use unique sounds as building blocks for complex communication. Considered to be highly social animals, whales are known to communicate with each other by producing different combinations of clicks. Researchers recently compared the phenomena — observed in sperm whales in the Caribbean — to how people use a set number of sounds (represented by letters) to compose words into an endless combination of sentences. "Sperm whale vocalizations are more expressive and structured than previously believed," lead researcher Pratyusha Sharma of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology wrote in the paper. "Our findings open up the possibility that sperm whale communication might provide our first example of that phenomenon in another species," they said. The discovery emerged thanks to an analysis of sperm whale vocalizations from about 60 animals that were recorded between 2005 and 2018. Researchers examined the whales' sounds to look for similarities and patterns and ultimately found several repeated, 2-second-long 'codas' — the basic units of speech. They found thousands of instances of unique sets of codas, or what could be considered words in human communication. Scientists noted that the sets of sounds used by the sperm whales in the study varied by context. 5 The enormous corpse was lifted off the beach by a lorry before being taken away for incineration Credit: Jam Press
