I was visiting with my friend's mom, Linda. She had come over to tell me stories of my friend Jimmy, her son, who was in the military overseas. As we exchanged stories she began to ask me what I have been doing with my summer and I told her I was a whale watch captain. I told her I loved it and was having a great time showing people the whales of southeast Alaska. From that point we began telling whale watching stories and laughing and laughing until she told me this one. I told her that we had to share it with everyone and so here it is, most of it anyways. It gets too funny for the rest of it... for now.
It was a summer day in southeast Alaska and the humpback whales were hungry. They were lunge feeding all over the place. There wasn't much to do so I thought of getting closer to the whales. I went out to get a closer look in my skiff and dropped my hydrophone over the side of the boat so I could hear the whales talking and making sounds. I heard bubbles and then I heard the unmistakable stun scream of the alpha male, EEEEEEEEEEEEEEE. It was deafening. I knew the call meant that in a matter of seconds hungry humpback mouths with giant pink tongues would open and lunge to the surface falling on top of each other as they come out of the water and feast. I threw up my arms in anticipation and there they were. I motored back a bit to get out of the way and waited. The last of the seventeen tails disappeared under the water. Ten minutes later I was ready for the encore. EEEEEEEEE and I knew it was about to happen so I threw my arms up again in pure joy.
Unbeknownst to me, a sailboat had blown up behind me with a very excited crew. Harv and Marv had taken a few friends out for a photo safari. They watched as this woman threw up her hands time and again and with each raise of her arms, the whales surfaced. Later, they were having some refreshments at a local eatery. They laughed as they recounted the days great whale watching. And they were overheard saying, "there was this woman in a tiny skiff orchestrating the whales, it was amazing!!"
Well, I used to be a music teacher but I cannot take credit for any whales bubble feeding. It was a nice compliment though.
Anyways, I love all the stories of whale watching here. They range from a sailboat sinking from a breaching whale to people getting whale snot on them, oh, and how can I forget... and of course the umm, special doctor for males.
Cory Mann is a freelance writer and captain for Whale Watch Alaska, a tour company offering tours in Juneau, Alaska and healing people of things to do in Alaska. You can find more of his work here where you can find him Whale Watching.
Article Source: Cory_J_Mann
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