My Dad is retired, and has always enjoyed fishing. So once a week, weather permitting, he goes deep sea fishing, out of Newburyport, MA, on a day trip boat.
On fishing trips with my family, I have had better whale encounters than on most official whale watches I've been on. The boats cannot and do not go into protected areas, but the whales, of course, go whever they please. Almost every trip he at least sees a couple minkes, and sightings of humpbacks and finbacks are not rare either - the waters off the Massachusetts coat are good fishing for everycritter.
Well today was a first. He called to say it was a beautiful day on the water, pretty, sunny, he caught lots of "exercise" fish - too small to keep, so they carefully take the hook out and put them back. Exercise for the fisherman's arm, reeling them up, and exercise for the fishy to swim back down.
But the most amazing part of the day was they had a big old humpback BACK into the boat! They were on their way out to where they'd be fishing, and the captain spotted the whale. He immediately throttled back, and shut off the props completely, so there'd be no chance of the whale getting hurt. There are rules about how close a boat can get to the whales, but the whales, of course, haven't read the rulebook.
So the boat is just idling, waiting, and the captain said "Where'd he go?" and Dad shouted back - "He's under the bow!" Dad (who has been out on the ocean since childhood - a long time ago) didn't know whales could go backwards until he saw this guy just back right into the boat! Then the whale went down and breached right next to them - Dad said he had really bad fish-breath!
Whale was unharmed, and once he was well away, both whale and boat resumed their day. They saw a couple other younger humpies, too, but the big guy was the highlight of the day for everyone!
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I would LOVE to have an experience like that - how very exciting for your dad!
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