whale visit

I know whales are supposed to be cute and cuddly and all that, but the reality is they have killed a lot of my friends and neighbors throughout the years. One just killed a mariner here last week.

No one knows for sure of course, but back in 2004 when I was lobstering off Criehaven Island, a few hundred miles from us 4 friends on the CandyBII were dragging for scallops. It is assumed in the middle of the night the older wooden vessel hit a whale and sank to the bottom. By all reports it was a sound vessel otherwise. A commercial plane picked up the EPIRB that automatically goes off on commercial vessels when it hits the water, but the Coast Guard only found debris of the boat. Sadly the Atlantic, being too cold, doesn't give up the dead. One was 19 and the oldest was 32. It was midnight so they probably never knew what hit them.

I know it is not the whales fault, but whales are big and vessels are small. Its not always a great match up on the open ocean.

This looks like a juvenile humpback to me. Is this in Baja California or some other place where they congregate?

I'd've turned to the right...

I found it on the interwebs so it must be true.

And it's a fish fart. My dog loved fish. Those are the worst. Much worse than if he ate potatoes or rice.

I like how the smart people on one section of dock run back when the whale turns around. Seriously. As Travis mentions, whale are quite dangerous.

I'm amazed when people are calm and comfortable when really, really close to these creatures. Even killer whales, which while not as big as a humpback, I think humans look like sea lions to killer whales and probably a similarly tasty morsel.

The footage ends rather suspiciously right as it rounds toward the person crouching at the end for a photo (and not running). Here's hoping all the dock bits and people survived intact!

And I don't want to experience either whale or dog fish farts, thank you for that painful idea, Dale!

On the second day that I owned my $100 kayak, I spent about 2 hours in close proximity to a teenage gray whale that was working a stream between two islands, where fish travel. He looked at me a few times, but was more interested in fishing. During the last half-hour, I was joined by other kayakers who had travelled far and wide, and never come up on a whale that was so easy to keep track of. I might not have discovered the whale, except that every seal in that section of the bay, suddenly swam to the shore and climbed up onto the rocks. They wouldn't necessarily know that it was a baleen whale. Killer whales are their enemy. They have big teeth. That whale continually returned to his sweet fishing spot, for the remainder of the summer. I took my daughter up to see it..

I'm not familiar with the statistics on people being killed by whales, but it's quite a rarity. Whales have much more to fear from man. Same thing with sharks. A human has about a one in 50 million chance of being killed by a shark. Shark has a 50% chance of dying at the hands of a human.

I was a fisherman when I was young.  My first offshore trips were when I was 5 years old.  I began commercial fishing at 12 and did so until a few years after graduating college (paid fully with fishing money).  I've seen just about all of what the ocean has to offer, even having a few close calls where I was sure I'd be lost at sea (and should have been).  I've had some run ins with whales that made me realize that they are super giant powerful creatures and not to messed with.

On one trip off Cape Cod  a huge humpback whale came right along side of the boat I was on and blasted us with it's nasty ass blowhole breath.  On that same trip another group of folks on an inflatable skiff were practically killed by a whale slapping it's flukes on the water next to them.  

Whales: Awesomely dangerous and beautiful.

Much respect to the largest creatures of this planet.  But please stay clear of my boat.  

Right whales are so dangerous that it is against Federal Law still for anyone to try and even rescue them. They are just that unpredictable. That law still stands after a man trying to free a whale was killed in maine a few weeks ago now.