What a Whale Show!

Our first day of fishing there were whales everywhere on the grounds- bubble feeding, breaching, slapping their tails. 


There were bait balls of fish all around us and lots of activity, but the whales were the real show. It led to one of the most exciting and/or scary events I’ve had in a long time. Doug was in the pit fishing and I was driving the boat, watching a group of whales bubble feeding off in the distance. Suddenly two whales surfaced heading straight for the boat on our port side. I immediately turned to the starboard and slowed the boat so that they could cross in front of us, as obviously they hadn’t seen us. Two more surfaced, and then two more! They were moving quickly, straight across our bow. I had to throw the boat into neutral to avoid driving right into them. They crossed about 10 feet in front of us! One lifted his head, took one look at us and immediately dove recognizing how close we were to a collision. Basically when I looked over the bow, it was just whale - lots and lots of whale.  


They all dove, continuing to move very quickly. Doug and I just sat there to make sure they weren’t underneath us and our gear that was 24 fathoms below us (144 feet). They then surfaced off our starboard in a huge bubble feeding fest about 50 yards away. My heart was pounding but it was amazing to see those creatures so close. It was as if a herd of buffalo had just charged across the street right in front of the car.

Two days later another group surfaced, bubble feeding directly in front of us! There was literally no space between the boat and 8 huge creatures churning up the water. Mouths wide open, fins flipping, rolling around. I still don’t know how we didn’t hit at least 1 of them. They were even closer then the time before and not just passing in front of us but hanging there feeding while our momentum was still moving us forward. Wow, so scary but so awesome after the fact when we could appreciate the up close look. 

Comments

  1. Wow, what an honor to be in the presence of such majestic beings.

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