Watch the Majestic Curiosity as Whale Investigates a Paddle boarder

Whales are incredible creatures.

Once upon a time, when I worked in Alaska, the plant I worked at would be visited by Gray whales. Usually, they wouldn't come in too close...usually.

Then came a day when a little baby Gray decided to come into the dock area to see what all the hub-bub was about...

I was up on the roof doing some repairs. I was the one that noticed Jr. comin' in for a looksee...everything stopped on the dock as we were all watching Jr. watch us!!

Apparently, Jr's Mama wasn't all that thrilled with Jr. comin' in so close. She, too, came on in, and you could almost hear her yellin' at Jr. Something along the lines of..."Get your behind back out here, young man, or your going to be in trouble!!", or words to that effect.

Jr. turned around and swam back out to Mama, and they left for deeper water.

So very, very cool.

Another whale of a story--that just incidentally has a whale in it--is the episode of "When Orca's are HUNGRY!", that I personally witnessed.

We'd had the day off, so I went for a walk--ended up over at the old City Dock, near the boat harbor.

Now this area played host to quite the population of sea lions--mooches, the lot of 'em--who would haul out in various places along the shore of the island.

This particular day I was watching a group of sea lions doin' what they do--mostly not a whole lot. Then they just all disappeared, except for one, he came racing into shallow water, practically throwing up a rooster tail.

What the heck, thought I... Then I noticed out beyond the haul out spot was the head of an Orca bobbing up and down--I think they call it periscoping--aha, thought I, I see why the sea lion came into shallow water. Understandable. Who wants to become Orca chow, after all??

Well, for about 2 minutes or so, probably less, the whale watched, then seemingly went away...seemingly being the operative word. A few minutes later, the sea lion thought so, too...

Well, Orca chow decided to swim back out to the haul out. About thirty seconds later I spot a rather large shadow swim from behind me(!!!!), behind Orca chow, and closing fast.

About thirty seconds after that, Orca chow comes out of the water, with the Orca right behind. The water turns crimson, and that was the end of Orca Chow.

Another story, I only heard this, but believe every word of it.

A long liner out of Sand Point, was out during the spring halibut derby--36 hours, you can catch as much as you can, or as much as your boat can hold--and maybe a wee bit more...

This boat had been out and was catching a good bunch of halibut, then they started catching nothing but the heads of the halibut. Needless to say, the fishermen weren't all that happy about that...apparently a pod of Orcas figured out that if you wait until the halibut are being pulled up to the boat, you can swim in underneath and nibble the fish off the hook, or at least most of it.

Angry doesn't even touch what those fishermen were feelin'...I thought it was hilarious, personally.

Love this video, thanks for sharing it!!!
I made an earlier reply that is too late to edit.
This is not about whales but it is a very cool vintage fishing vid.
Hope you like it.

Cheers

m.youtube.com...

a reply to: that is such an adventure, love it.RMFX1

Cool man. # we need more of that and less doom and gloom. Thank you for sharing with us.
a reply to: gortex