PebHmong Discussion Forum
General Category => General Discussion => Topic started by: theking on December 23, 2020, 11:47:03 AM
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..too much and really disrupted their way of life mainly due to greed ???:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=heflSFI3V0c (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=heflSFI3V0c)
(https://img.movietimes.com/unsafe/fit-in/300x450/smart/https://assets.movietimes.com/v1/celebrity_images/108445/uiInnBINMiYYwfzFJv4902HKW76.jpg)
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This was back in the Reagan and Gorbachev days so some of you may not remember but it made these Minnesota guys local celebrity:
Brothers-in-Law’s $400 De-Icers Advance $500,000 Whale Rescue Effort With PM-Trapped Whales, Bjt
ELSON LAGOON, Alaska (AP) _ Two tenacious brothers-in-law used $400 de-icers to enlarge the breathing holes of three stranded whales, accomplishing in hours what it had taken a day for workers in the $500,000 rescue effort to do.
Greg Ferrian and Rick Skluzacek, of Lakeland, Minn., flew to Alaska at their own expense Wednesday when rescue coordinators politely rejected their offer to bring in the device, used to free boats in frozen marinas.
Early today, under the skeptical supervision of the rescuers, they used six small de-icers to clear ice and slush from the two breathing holes the California gray whales have been using since becoming trapped last week.
The cylindrical devices, about 9 inches around and 14 inches long, churn up warm water from below the surface to melt the ice.
Eskimo whalers and other volunteers have labored with chain saws, pickaxes and steel bars to keep the holes open, but in a matter of hours, the devices had accomplished what took all day to do by hand.
Ferrian said he first learned of the whales’ plight Monday night while watching the televised struggle to keep the breathing holes open.
″It looked to me like a hard way to go about it, and I had an easier way,″ he said. Ferrian called his brother-in-law, Skluzacek.
″He was thinking the same thing,″ Ferrian said.
He immediately began calling rescue coordinators in Alaska, but as with numerous other, often impractical well-wishers, the offer was politely brushed off. Other suggestions that have been rejected included dropping everything from explosives to bowling balls through the ice.
Lying in bed that night, Ferrian became more and more convinced he had a solution.
″My wife kept pushing me on the deal. She said, ’If you feel that strongly about it, go for it.‴
The two said they spent about $5,000 to make the trip to Barrow.
″Once we got to the airports and people found out what the equipment was for, it was pretty much a free ride for the machines,″ Ferrian said.
After meeting with rescue officials Wednesday afternoon, they got their chance.
″It wasn’t costing us anything, and they were here, so we figured, ’Why not?‴ said Ron Morris, a National Marine Fisheries Service biologist in charge of the rescue operation.
Working in the pre-dawn dark in subzero temperatures, they hooked up a portable generator and put the machines to work.
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Heck even young Sarah Palin was part of it when she was a sports caster for a news station in Alaska ;D:
(https://i.ytimg.com/vi/gV-vWrU27Go/hqdefault.jpg)