“Mind if I drop in?”
(Note to self: bring a waterproof camera should you ever go whale-watching.)
I won’t speak to your experience in Iceland, but I will just say that, of course the tour operators want to justify what they do as harmless or even helpful. The truth is that most global whale watching tours are self-regulated animal-botherers that chase the whales from feeding grounds and their pursuit often separates mothers from slower children, and scatters pods. That’s all invisible to the individual tourists on the boat, who have an amazing time.
People undeniably have sublime individual experiences, but as an industry, the cost is borne by the animals, not the one-time happy watchers.
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Two whales talking:
one: I’ll draw their attention farther away while you sneak up on them
two: Ok, then I’ll whistle when in place
one: I’ll breach
two: I’ll nail them!
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My sister was whale watching in British Columbia this week, and a humpback came right next to the boat. The way she tells it, it seemed to be reacting to the people or boat, but maybe flipping around was just coincidence.
In Puget Sound we have Orca watching boats. Theres enough protected area from the many islands, that deisel exhaust from all the boating traffic tends to collects in a three inch inversion layer just above the water.
…which is where the orca do most of their their breathing. Sure enough, the lungs autopsied from the whales after theyve died, show heavy damage from deisel fumes. This has diminished my enjoyment of these kinds of videos quite a bit.
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Some studies think the breaching and surface slapping are short-range communication to keep the pod together, as they scatter from what they think is a possible predator.
Literally laughing in the face of death.
Those people are about a foot away from being crushed. They are either extremely lucky, or that whale has great depth perception.
That felt real I’ll wager.
”Easily the most incredible whale-watching encounter I’ve ever experienced. Wish my little wooden boy could have been there to share the moment.”
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Still worth the risk, eh? Think of all the ambergris!
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Looks like they had a whale of a time!
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If whales team up with dolphins, we’re all in big trouble…
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“COME, LITTLE WOODEN BOY! JUSTICE AWAITS, AND IT’S TACO TUESDAY!!”
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