{"id":10807,"date":"2021-01-16T10:04:56","date_gmt":"2021-01-16T16:04:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/oldnaturalist.com\/?p=10807"},"modified":"2021-08-18T16:58:26","modified_gmt":"2021-08-18T21:58:26","slug":"sea-stories","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/oldnaturalist.com\/?p=10807","title":{"rendered":"Open Ocean Odysseys"},"content":{"rendered":"

Readers Robert Pitman, James Cotton, Diane Kaplan, Jen and Jordan Ganley share their stories about being at sea.<\/p>\n

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A sperm whale swimming away from the ship. The blowhole is at the upper left hand corner of the photo.
Photo by James M. Cotton, NMFS<\/p><\/div>\n

Mom\u2019s the Word<\/strong>
\nRobert Pitman, Whale Biologist, NMFS
\nI was aboard a Japanese research vessel and we approached a pod of sperm whales. The adult females were 30 to 35 feet long, lying side-by-side and moving slowly away from our vessel. <\/em>
\nWe had cut the engines and just by chance our vessel glided to a stop where the group had reassembled. Just as we were getting ready to leave, we noticed for the first time that there was a newborn calf in their midst.<\/em><\/p>\n

Our tiny calf was spasmatically flailing at the sea surface with a tail it clearly had not gotten the hang of yet. It looked like a newborn fawn trying to get up on wobbly legs for the first time.<\/em><\/p>\n

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Sperm Whale cow and calf.
Photo by James M. Cotton, NMFS<\/p><\/div>\n

Then, an utterly miraculous thing happened. One of the females appeared to suddenly become aware that the struggling calf was positioned between her and the ship only meters away. She dropped her massive lower jaw, carefully took up the calf in her mouth, and rolled over, depositing it on her other side, putting herself between the boat and the baby!<\/em><\/p>\n

There was stunned silence onboard our vessel. Everyone on the boat had connected to what just happened: a concerned mother had, without a moment\u2019s hesitation, put herself between her young and a perceived threat. I was standing on the bow and immediately swung around to see everyone on our little expedition staring at the water, visibly shaken. We engaged our engines and slowly pulled away.<\/em><\/p>\n

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Green Sea Turtle
Photo by Lawrence Wade<\/p><\/div>\n

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In 2018, I was honored to visit the Galapagos which are truly enchanted islands.\u00a0 Often I felt like I was walking in a dream and wondering whether the experience was real. Being so close to this beautiful green sea turtle was the high point of my snorkeling experience.
\n<\/em><\/p>\n

Lawrence Wade<\/h4>\n

Dancing with a Green Sea Turtle
\n<\/strong>Floating together<\/em>
\nBack and forth with the surge<\/em>
\nExperiencing wonder<\/em>
\nSuch beauty and wildness<\/em>
\nNever to be forgotten<\/em><\/p>\n

Contributor Alex Munoz contributed the following story:
\nI once had encounter with a large sea turtle, It’s back was green with a light undercoat, I was swimming 100 ft from shore at the pier in Ventura, California. We swam together for about 5 minutes, I was astonished at how graceful it was and huge in comparison to\u00a0 myself at age 17. An experience I have never forgotten.<\/em><\/p>\n

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\n\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t
Whale Shark\nPhoto by<\/div><\/div>\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t<\/span>\n\t\t\t\twhalesharkKaplan<\/span>\n<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>
\n<\/em>Video by Jen Ganley<\/strong>
\n<\/em><\/h4>\n

This video is from the Sea of Cortez, Baja California and was shared by Diane Kaplan, Jen and Jordan Ganley.\"\"<\/a>
\n\u201cI felt excited to swim with the whale shark. It was humongous and I thought was it going to suck me up<\/em>.\u201d Jordan Ganley, 7 years old.<\/strong>
\n\u201cAll my fears disappeared when I saw how gentle the creature was.\u00a0 The animal was so HUGE under the water.\u201d<\/em>\u00a0 Jen Ganley.<\/strong>
\n\u201cI had to swim on the side of the whale shark and keep up with it because\u00a0 it could slam me with its tail. My entire body felt this intense calmness and excitement all at once. The whale shark was so powerful and calm. The whale shark\u00a0 was on some level connecting with me.\u00a0 It allowed me to share its presence like I was another fish. The whale shark touched me deeply and I felt at ease with it.\u201d\u00a0<\/em> Diane Kaplan<\/strong><\/p>\n

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Humpback Whale Breaching. Cabo San Lucas, Mexico.
Photo by Jen Ganley<\/p><\/div>\n

\u201cGetting to see these majestic, gentle creatures breaching was incredible. Of course, I know that whales are huge, but it wasn\u2019t until they breached that I got a real sense of their size.\u201d\u00a0 <\/em>Jen Ganley<\/strong>
\n<\/em><\/p>\n

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Humpback whale splash after breach.
Photo by Jen Ganley<\/p><\/div>\n

Diane Kaplan\u2019s observation of\u00a0 the humpback whale’s breach:<\/strong>
\n\u201cIt is impossible not feeling the powerful energy that emanates from Humpback Whales.\u00a0 When you are close and they breach the full size and power of them is amazing.\u00a0 Everybody always gasps and \u201coohs and ahhs\u201d when their bodies slam against the water.\u00a0 Tremendous gift.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Readers Robert Pitman, James Cotton, Diane Kaplan, Jen and Jordan Ganley share their stories about being at sea. Mom\u2019s the Word Robert Pitman, Whale Biologist, NMFS I was aboard a Japanese research vessel and we approached a pod of sperm … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[12,23],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10807","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-connecting-to-nature","category-whales-oceanography"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/oldnaturalist.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10807","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/oldnaturalist.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/oldnaturalist.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/oldnaturalist.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/oldnaturalist.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=10807"}],"version-history":[{"count":17,"href":"http:\/\/oldnaturalist.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10807\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11025,"href":"http:\/\/oldnaturalist.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10807\/revisions\/11025"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/oldnaturalist.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=10807"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/oldnaturalist.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=10807"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/oldnaturalist.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=10807"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}