Yes, this experience was as terrifying as it sounds. But it was also amazing.
You know the saying: it’s not about size, it’s about the motion of the ocean.
Well…this whale had both.
A BC family was taken for a wild ride off the NorthIsle coast. Why’s that? A young whale spent nearly an hour rubbing up against their boat.
Aleks Mount was northeast of Campbell River when he and his family spotted a gigantic humpback whale only 100 meters away. How thrilling! Humpbacks are roughly the size of a school bus, so they’re hard to miss.
Only then it got a little too friendly.
The whale dove underwater and resurfaced right below the family’s boat.
“All it had to do is flip its tail and the boat will be in the air,” Mount told CBC.
The family was scared of how the whale would react if they turned the engine on. They were also worried the propeller would hurt the animal.
So they watched and waited as the whale did kicks and flips inches away from their boat.
“I could just touch it. It was just rubbing gently against the boat, going under, coming out,” said Mount.
Andrew Trites is the director of the marine mammal research unit at the University of British Columbia. He thinks the young whale may have thought the boat was a potential mate.
He says the boat’s depth sounder lets out high-frequency waves that are very similar to the sounds whales use to communicate.
“It may well have been that this young male was actually singing to the boat,” Trites told CBC.
“For the humpback whale, this appears to be another living being that’s almost its own size, it’s something it can interact with.”
“They’ve got to practice with someone—why not a boat?”
Mount said the depth sounder was indeed on when the whale approached.
For other boaters out there, if you’re out whale watching, be sure to take precautions. This love story could have gone south real quick.
“These are gentle giants, but they can do a lot of damage unintentionally… it could be potentially lethal,” said Trites.
He says boaters should try their best to keep a distance from any whales they spot. And switch off their boat’s depth sounder.
That is, unless you want the whale to take you for a rough and tumble.
