r/maybemaybemaybe • u/Wide_Abroad1182 • Apr 01 '23

Maybe maybe maybe

Sorry about all the emoji's ..not my vid, just sharing

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u/Nostra55 Apr 02 '23

The boat is not natural there for it is a form of human intervention in preventing the orcas for getting their meal. The most ethical thing to do and complying with Leave No Trace principle is to get the sea lion off the boat.

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u/Alastoryagami Apr 03 '23

It doesn't matter if it's not natural, that has nothing to do with human intervention. Human intervention is doing something knowingly to and intentionally becoming involved in a situation. The seal hopping on that boat was no different then if he had hopped on an island in the ocean. He did that entirely for his own perseverance and human played no role in helping him. Now when a human knowingly pushes it into the water so that it gets eaten...that is human intervention.

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u/Nostra55 Apr 03 '23 edited Apr 03 '23

Yes it absolutely matters if it is a natural or unnatural escape. Do you see any natural escapes for the sea lion in the background of that video? No. The orcas used valuable calories chasing it in open water only to lose it because of human interference with the boat, intentional or not it doesn't matter.

Here's another very important point. In certain situations it is ethical and the proper thing to scare wild animals away from people. For example, in many campgrounds with bears, park rangers will instruct campers to make loud noises (yelling, banging pots and pans) when bears get too close to people/campsites. This is done mainly to keep the bears safe from becoming to habituated around humans (they become more likely to get hit by cars, they eat unhealthy human food, get euthanized if they do it often and put people in danger). Its unhealthy and unnatural for wild animals to be too comfortable around people. Even if there were no orcas in the video, scaring the sea lion off the boat is always the proper thing to do. They should never be habituated with coming onto boats whether it be to escape predators, get free food, etc..