It's Not Just Orcas

[PippaB]

Humpback takes out boat:

https://www.wcvb.com/article/boat-wh...video/61678814

[JPA Cate]

Jeez, Pippa, that's pretty scary viewing! But it's just the same thing over and over and over. The guy fell out of the boat, any idea what happened to him? The viewing boat did not seem to react to the MOB. I would have thought it would go through to where the motor boat was sunk, but no documentation of that.

Any idea how the attack was provoked? Any real information?

Ann

[grantmc]

They're wild animals used to being apex beings. It certainly wasn't deliberately trying to damage their craft. Wrong place, wrong time.

I remember sailing past a couple of humpbacks some years back. 30 metres on one of them lifted and smashed down its massive tail. I thought at the time if it had down that a little earlier we could have been under it. The immensity of humpbacks is only really apparent when you're up close and personal.

The story reminded me of a jumping dolphin, weighing an estimated 400 kgs, that jumped out of the water as dolphin are prone to do. But it accidentally landed on top of a woman in a boat near Slipper Island off the North Island of New Zealand. Certainly ruined her day. Fortunately they both survived, although the woman needed months of medical care (provided free for all of us in NZ).

Article click here.

[GordMay]

Originally Posted by PippaB

Humpback takes out boat:
https://www.wcvb.com/article/boat-wh...video/61678814

Ann: Your questions are all answered, in the article PippaB linked.

[boatman61]

Not an attack Ann.. just a boat in the way of a feeding whale.
Better video here...

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=d09rPO...4gYm9hdA%3D%3D

[hpeer]

Not attack. I have had the good fortune to observe humpbacks a fair bit. And their behavious can be playful, exuberant. Once, from ashore, I saw one breach 17 times in a row, many were full out of water. We have watched the stick their heads out and look around, do head stands and flap the water with their tail, stick a fin out and wave to who knows who or what. When a pod gets playful, as I saw once, it can be exciting.

This is just someone wanting an up close encounter and got it.

Same thing happened here (2 years ago?). A couple out in an open boat got wacked and flipped. Very lucky for them someone ashore saw it and they were rescued in short order.

FWIW one year we had a small beluga in the harbor most of the summer. It was very playful and gregarious. One evening it was just laying in the water making gurgling sounds like a 3 year old in a bath. Very, very special event.

[denverd0n]

Gee. I think I read a book once about a humpback attacking a boat. But then, as I recall, that whale was white.

[PippaB]

Moby Dick was a sperm whale

Humpbacks seem to be reported like this every year or two, and as grantmc said, seems it is usually wrong place, wrong time rather than 'attack'.

[hpeer]

Sperm, not humpback.

And it did happen, just not Melvilles tale.

Look up Owen Chase, pretty gruesome.

[LakeSuperior]

Originally Posted by grantmc

...of medical care (provided free for all of us in NZ).

Cool...what other free stuff does the NZ Government give to their citizens??

[boatman61]

Education..

[JPA Cate]

Thanks, guys. You're right, apparently not an attack, I actually found the repeated video made it look like an attack and not a common breeching; and I think humpbacks are baleen whales: filter feeders, so the notion of it chasing fish out of the water is sorta odd...

And good on the guys for rescuing the men from the water.

Ann

[hpeer]

Balene but yes they eat sardines and capline.

[gonesail]

being out there in a 20' boat maybe was not the best idea.

[wyb2]

Originally Posted by gonesail

being out there in a 20' boat maybe was not the best idea.

1 mile offshore. On a calm day (like it looked like it was), they probably would have decent odds swimming back to the beach if no one was there to rescue them. Pretty unusual to get clobbered by a whale. Kinda hard to frame this as a case of taking unreasonable risks in my opinion.