On: New Type Of Killer Whale Found Swimming In Southern Ocean

[ocdtrekkie]

"The team was able to snip off small tissue samples from the whales by firing a harmless dart, attached to a line, into their skin."

Is it just me, or does shooting them with a projectile that tears out some of their flesh seem to not be "harmless", inherently?

[bdamm → ocdtrekkie]

Or is it more akin to a biopsy? Not harmless, but very unlikely to be more harmful than a scratch.

[soperj → bdamm]

Scratches can be harmful though, they're an easy vector for infection.

[noselasd → ocdtrekkie]

It's likely just you. Orcas are big, the projectiles are small.

[kevin_thibedeau → ocdtrekkie]

No worse than what a cookie-cutter shark can do.