Watch the Majestic Curiosity as Whale Investigates a Paddle boarder

Whales are the largest and to my mind the most majestic of all creatures on the planet , graceful and ever curious their gentility when it comes to encounters with their biggest threat never ceases to amaze me , this encounter happened off the shores of Argentina and was filmed by a local photographer who had a drone in the air at the time.


Just Beautiful.

a reply to: gortex

That was truly beautiful!

Brought tears to my eyes!

a reply to: Flyingclaydisk

Brought tears to mine too mate , old fools that we are.

a reply to: gortex

That is awesome. While in the military awhile ago I was stationed in Hawaii. We would go paddle boarding for our morning PT and I was amazed at the Sea Turtles that followed me. They are not as big as whales but at 350 plus they were bigger than me.

They would be beside the board right and left, a sizable group following behind me, and a leader out front who would stick up and look behind at me, like come on don’t take so long get moving buddy. They are an extremely protected species in Hawaii and some very large fines if you touch them or disturb them in any way. I was always afraid of falling in but instead just was given a tour by some amazing creatures as curious about me as we are of them !

a reply to: Superecho2021

That sounds cool , I've never been fortunate enough to experience anything like that so thanks for sharing.

a reply to: gortex

she used the word "privileged" to describe the encounter. I can't think of a better word.
Imagine the chances of having a drone in the air, at the perfect time and place.

a reply to: gortex

If only humans were more like whales.

What a world we would live in.

originally posted by: KKLOCO
a reply to: gortex

If only humans were more like whales.

What a world we would live in.

Kinda' make you think doesn't it?

As I watched that video I saw my whole life and the life of mankind on this planet since the beginning of time.
Those two whale calves were just learning their new world and having some gentle whale fun.

Such a simple video, yet one with almost unimaginable philosophical magnificence.

Here is a post that strikes deep in my heart!
For many years I was a offshore commercial fisherman along the east coast of the USA.
Although I’ve been as far North and East as The Flemish Cap and as far South and West as The Bay of Campeche North of the Yucatán Peninsula most of my years spent offshore was along the offshore waters of Georges Bank, just East of Cape Cod. I fished on many types of boats for many types of seafood.
My favorite type of fishing and where I spent the most of my years at sea working was aboard Trawlers, dragging the bottom for Sea Scallops.
When we hauled the Scallop Drags aboard (one each side) they would be full of, well, whatever was on the bottom.
We’d go through the piles picking out what we wanted to keep and shovel the rest overboard through the scuppers.
The fish we’d clean and ice down in the hold at watch end but the Scallops were more work.
We’d fill baskets and run them into the cutting boxes and dump them in the long troughs at which we would stand for countless hours on end shucking those nuggets of white gold from the shell.
Millions upon millions of Scallops have I shucked during my career.
Usually there were 4 men on deck and if we were catching enough Scallops the Skipper or First Mate would also cut out alongside the wheelhouse.
(we called shucking, “cutting” or “cutting out” so don’t get confused when I use the word “cutting” etc.
When cutting we only kept the muscle, the Scallop uses to open and close it two shells.
Scallops also swim by the way.....jet propulsion!
The rest of the Scallop or “the guts” we’d toss over with the shells.
With 5 guys cutting there was thousands of pounds of guts going over on good days and that draws A LOT of sea life.
(you want to catch Giant Blufin Tuna? Find a Scalloper offshore and beg a bucket of guts from the guys. Set up and fish behind the boat as it works and you WILL score true Giants!)
The point....finally!!!
Whales would also shadow use gorging on Scallop Guts, the most common kind of whale to do this were the smaller Minkie Whales of which I have many pictures.
(ATS won’t let my phone download them sorry).
One day as I was running the watch as First Mate I had a target on radar about 4 miles away that did not make sense. It was a perfect August day with deep blue skies and a glass sea, not a ripple, not a swell and no other boats anywhere on the horizon.
Being deep into the Sou’east parts I knew we were not in an area where Lobstermen place their long 100 pot trawls for “Bugs” so there should be no highflyers (radar markers) at each end of the trawls anywhere near us.
Perhaps one was adrift?
At watch end I talked to the skipper and we decided to go have a look so when we next hauled back the drags I tokd the boys to leave em on deck for a few minutes and go cut.
As we steamed toward the radar target we saw it was a radar reflector but it was not adrift.
The highflyer was all tangle around the right flipper of a Humpback Whale.
One of the guys was named Buster and were we good friends and made one hell of a team or Dory Mates on deck together. Buster is one crazy and string dude!
(two men worked each side, handled their own drag).
Buster yells up, hey Pirate (me) lets go free it.
I looked at the skipper and he says go for it so Buster and I stripped down, each put two razor sharp rippers in our teeth and dove over with the whale calmly lying too about 40 feet off the port side.
We slowly approached and she just laid there. I was the first to gently touch and stroke the end of her flipper and she didn’t move a muscle. I took a ripper from my teeth and showed it to her while making a sawing motion.
It took maybe 15 minutes to get to this point, we went slow, so slow and talking all the time to show we were no threat.
She knew! She knew we were there to help!!!!!
Buster got behind her flipper and I eased along the front.
For a minute ? Seconds? I just looked into her huge eye that was no more than an arm length away and it was Magic, pure raw Magic!!!
That Humpback just laid too and let us cut her free.
The thing was, part of the rope had gotten buried in her flesh and what we had to do was I’m sure painful in the extreme. A few times she winced (when a whale winces, you know it) but she let us do what need doing.
Skipper said we were alongside her for an 8 mile drift from when we dove in, a bit less than two hours.
Anyway we got her free and the boys hauled the flyer and trailing lines on deck and helped us aboard.
Oh, when we finished Buster and I got near her head again for a couple of minutes and the 3 of us just floated there staring into each others eyes. Buster and I both complained about sore face muscles from jaw cracking grins we wore the whole lime.
And laugh, how we laughed....
The boys decided to name her Bertha 🤷‍♂️.
Bertha spent 3 day and nights with us and after 100 breaches she came alongside as we were handling the gear just at sunrise and turned her left eye up and just stared at us at on the rail, laughing and waving.
She dove under the boat heading East and when she was about 50 yards out she gave us one last leap, the highest I’ve ever seen a whale out of the water. And I’d seen hundreds and hundreds of breeches.
I could go on for hours talking about The Sea and and the wonders, beauty and yes.....sheer terror I’ve been blessed with being a part of.
I’ Old and busted up now and the Sea calls to me day and night in all weather, winter or summer.
When God calls me home my ashes will enrich the Banks.





reply to: gortex

Those are Southern Right Whales.
In Alaska the Inuit call Northern Right Whales, Bowheads.

Why Right Whales?

Whalers named them that because they float when killed so they were the right Whales to catch...

a reply to: Flyingclaydisk

a reply to: PiratesCut
Thank you for sharing that beautiful story!

I'm a total landlubber, live a block from the beach but haven't been down there in over a decade, which is weird now I think about it. Your story gave me chills and when you mentioned sore face from smiling I realized I had a huge grin on my face too. The whale probably treasures that day and meeting you both too.

originally posted by: igloo
a reply to: PiratesCut
Thank you for sharing that beautiful story!

I'm a total landlubber, live a block from the beach but haven't been down there in over a decade, which is weird now I think about it. Your story gave me chills and when you mentioned sore face from smiling I realized I had a huge grin on my face too. The whale probably treasures that day and meeting you both too.

That is weird. Not even for an early morning walk?

This is a channel I watch, this video literally just came out half an hour ago. Very similar experience except, this isn't his first incredible whale or shark video. Please watch it.

This is a channel I watch, this video literally just came out half an hour ago. Very similar experience except, this isn't his first incredible whale or shark video. Please watch it.
EDIT: OK ATS's YT linking is effing stupid. Just click the link.

www.youtube.com...

a reply to: PiratesCut

That's a great story!!

Many stars for you!

a reply to: PiratesCut

very cool story. I hope you decide to write more about the things most of us will never see or experience.

a reply to: Flyingclaydisk

Absolutely!

I’ve heard many people say that whales are more spiritually evolved / advanced than humans.

I just can’t think of one thing, that could possibly refute that notion.

Well, only their naivety towards humans and our less than pleasant nature.

a reply to: gortex

This is something that doesn't matter at all and has no effect on the video, but the thought popped into my head.....

I wonder who reached out to who. Did the drone pilot wait for her to come to shore, or did she specifically look for him shortly after the whales left, or did she try find him some other day, etc.. etc..



It's a cool video. She was lucky that his drone was there at the perfect spot & at the right time to help her document the encounter.

originally posted by: RMFX1
This is a channel I watch, this video literally just came out half an hour ago. Very similar experience except, this isn't his first incredible whale or shark video. Please watch it.
EDIT: OK ATS's YT linking is effing stupid. Just click the link.

www.youtube.com...

Surviving 24 Hours In A Floating Tent At Sea


I'd love to stay in a floating tent as long as the weather stayed calm like that. Not sure how I'd feel about sharks swimming around it though.





For future reference: I'm pretty sure you have the right idea about posting videos here, but where you went wrong was with the ' & '

' & ' is never part of the video code.
It literally means 'and', so it means 'video' and 'something else' (such as a timestamp, or.....)
So IF there is an ' & ' stop copying the code immediately before it.

In the winter, when bodysurfing, or diving, or doing anything else which takes one underwater, one can hear the humpbacks singing.

Knowing what the sound is, is wonderful. For superstitious sailors, hearing the songs through the hull of their wooden ships was not so wonderful.

My great, great grandfather killed whales for a living (a good living it was) before he lost his second ship and retired in Honolulu.

Whaling's not what it used to be. I try to get out to see them when the wind is down. There is nothing quite like seeing 40 tons of animal hurl itself out of the water.