Have you ever met anyone who doesn’t love whales, except maybe those who suffer from cetaphobia or thalassophobia?
Along with dolphins, the majestic marine mammals are pretty much universally loved, and rightly so.
Thanks to the anti-SeaWorld movement that came with Blackfish, people are perhaps now more than ever keen to protect and enjoy the beauty of whales from afar. To protect them for future generations.
Anything this gigantic that spends most of its time hidden in the deep blue sea is mysterious, interesting and dare I say it, beautiful. Here you have a breathing, warm blooded mammal like not unlike us humans, but display a level of cool we could simply never reach. It’s probably why we go in search of them.
Anyway, enough from me. Watch this video of a whale appearing underneath a man paddleboarding if you fancy some weekend goosebumps:
Breathtaking. Here in the UK, we seldom come across such large creatures and therefore marvel at such footage.
Last month, near Fox Island outside of Seward, Alaska, footage taken by Cara Wallschlaeger and guide Andrew Smith went viral after their their simple kayak was interrupted by a whale.
As they had the morning off, they decided to venture out to Rugged Island where orcas were known to knock about.
As they were paddling out, the pair saw a familiar humpback whale breaching many times far off in the distance.
As they were in between Hive and Fox island, Cara and Andrew were able to get close to this whale a few times, doing a sounding dive within paddle reach of Andrew’s kayak.
Excited by how close they were getting, and also needing to head back for their afternoon trip, the two decided to turn back north.
The whale came up next to them a few more times and continued to manoeuvre sideways and even underneath the kayaks.
Cara said:
Thankfully, I had my phone ready as can be seen in the video as he manoeuvred sideways through the water right in front of me in my kayak. My heart was definitely pounding!
Not far from Alaska, in Canada, one of the plucky swimmers swam right up to some lodgers.
In an incredible and dramatic scene captured on camera, a collection of the marine mammals made an appearance just off the edge of the dock of a lodge in Canada, with a group of onlookers watching excitedly from the Great Bear Lodge in Port Hardy, British Columbia, as the whales splashed around in the water.
Presumably having spotted what was happening, the visitors at the lodge gathered on the dock and were near enough beside themselves as they realised they were about to see humpback whales up close and personal.
Staring at a circle of bubbles in anticipation of the beats, the onlookers remained silent, probably praying the whales didn’t bugger off before they could take a pic for bragging rights on the ‘Gram.
One of the women pointed towards the water, and seconds later two humpbacks burst from the depths. Everyone was loving it.
Two of the women high-fived at their luck, and turned back to the water just in time to see the whales rise up one last time before dipping back into the sea.
The lodge’s Instagram page posted about the spectacular event.
The caption read:
What an amazing morning – humpbacks came for breakfast! We’ve never seen them this close to the lodge before, and so fantastic to see them bubble netting.
Nearly as good as the whales was the reaction of our guide, @Marlosha, who was pretty excited! The guests didn’t mind being woken up for this.
Magical things aren’t they? It almost makes me want to visit! Flight’s a bit long though, innit?
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