Whale Watching
Monday, August 13. 2007
Atlantic Ocean, MA (Aug 12, 2007)
Today I went whale watching with some greek and italian friends. The day was gorgeous, sunny, not too hot, very clear, and we got pretty lucky. I have been other times whale watching in the Boston Harbour, years ago, with alternate results. The first time I went it was quite magical, with a lot of Humpback whales breaching, a few of them coming very close to the boat. Other times we had been less fortunate, with not too many encounters, or really bad weather. Today it was quite good. We saw a few humpbacks (like the one in the photo) coming quite close to the boat, and even a few Fin whales (among which a mother with calf), which are the second largest animals in the world (the first are the blue whales).
I took many more photos of the whales, and of the friends accompanying me, and I will post some of them at a later time on this blog. I don’t know why whales trigger this emotional reaction in people (well at least in me). Maybe because they are so large, yet so elegant and gentle. Maybe because we had almost driven them to extinction, and by seeing them in all their glory this crime assume the full weight of reality. Maybe because we do feel incomplete, in our cages of cement, and these mythical monsters riding free the oceans of the world remind us of the ancestral paradise we lost, when we were one with nature.
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That must have been so cool! How big are these ? I saw two creatures this summer that we call “Nise”, they look a little like dolphins, but I think they`re smaller. Didn`t know nature facinated me that much, but that was a great experience...
Take care!
Take care!
Big, these animals are BIG. We were on a fairly large boat, and these humpback whales were almost as long as the boat. They can easily be 15 m or so... It is quite impressive because they are quite curious animals and sometimes they get pretty close to the boat to do “people watching”.
wow ~ a beautiful capture ... whales are so amazing. i had a fabulous experience five years ago when i was out whale watching on my son’s birthday ~ a beautiful mamma grey whale came up beside us and i felt her beautifully spongy barnacled skin and she blew ocean water all over us ~ it was absolutely incredible ... sigh
Impressive. I think you are right on the mark in your narrative.
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