A Whale of a Tale about a Whale's Mouth!

Paddlers' Place
#1

https://www.today.com/news/diver-survives-almost-being-swallowed-15-ton-whale-t150169

I bet he was glad to be baleen out of there!

#2

I saw that on the news. Makes me appreciate our fresh water even more.

#3

Considering that this is the only confirmed case of such an incident and it only happened because he was in the middle of a feeding area, it’s not as if it’s something you have to worry about when you’re kayaking. The reality is that the vast majority of salt water paddlers will have only pleasant encounters with marine wildlife.

The most dangerous part of most paddling trips is the drive to and from the water.

#4

@bnystrom said:
Considering that this is the only confirmed case of such an incident and it only happened because he was in the middle of a feeding area, it’s not as if it’s something you have to worry about when you’re kayaking. The reality is that the vast majority of salt water paddlers will have only pleasant encounters with marine wildlife.

The most dangerous part of most paddling trips is the drive to and from the water.

Amen! Been telling my wife that for years.

#5

@bnystrom said:

The most dangerous part of most paddling trips is the drive to and from the water.

Agreed

#6

First confirmed of a person, but other animals have this happen reasonably often. Here is a pelican in the mouth of a humpback that was caught on film a few years back in Monterey, CA:
http://www.barcroft.tv/pelicans-miraculous-escape-after-getting-caught-in-humpbacks-mouth

#7

I’d love to paddle among whales and dolphins again and would gladly take the minimal risk involved. From what I’ve heard, the bigger risk is being tossed by the surprise “upwelling” water if you didn’t notice you’d wandered into a zone of bubble feeding (I think that was the term used).

#8

Pelicans and people
perched upon the sea,
are merely garnish gathered in
an active bowl sushi,

so whether right or bryde to be
to soon be baleen out,
it’s oft a fool taken to school
sardined in whale of doubt

#9

I paddled in a pod of orca
which had its great appeal,
I only wished met with approval
did not stamp me with seal,

now stomping cross my paddle board,
my mood wood find me drab,
I stumbled midst a cachalot
who took me for Ahab.

#10

A paddler who goes out unheeding
Might find out the pod’s bubble feeding.
And if worse comes to worst,
His bubble is burst
By a giant baleen over-eatin’.

#11

@Peter-CA said:
First confirmed of a person, but other animals have this happen reasonably often. Here is a pelican in the mouth of a humpback that was caught on film a few years back in Monterey, CA:
http://www.barcroft.tv/pelicans-miraculous-escape-after-getting-caught-in-humpbacks-mouth
It makes sense that with birds, sharks and smaller fish feeding on the same prey, whales pretty routinely end up with something unexpected and inedible in their mouths. That’s probably why the diver was spat out with little or no injury; it’s something that the whale had likely experienced many times.

#12

A wee Jack Russell Did harken
A few humpback whales with her barking
With a great whoosh of air
They met a doggie so fair
Mostly white with brown and black marking

#13

Paris’s sangfroid during your close encounter with the bubble net pod was amazing.

#14

Sang Freud sangfroid
non-sanguine tones,
“Undid is id
when ego moans.”

But Paris stares as
whales which bubble,
canine sublimes
Will’s toil and trouble.