A trio of humpback whales put on quite the show for a family off the coast of Provincetown, MA last week. And the so-called "whale ballet" was all caught on video, showing the three mammals jumping completely in unison.
Robert Addie of Portsmouth, NH had been on a fishing excursion with his three adult daughters for his 59th birthday when they caught the thrilling scene. In addition to his birthday, they were also celebrating Addie's safe return from a humanitarian aid trip to Ukraine, where he came under heavy artillery fire.
During the fishing trip, he had been attempting to film some humpbacks about 300 yards from their boat, but had been having no luck until the triple breach.
As you can see in the below footage, the whales jumped in perfect synchronization before a fourth juvenile whale breached seconds later. The feat was something Addie, who now remodels homes, says he had not seen in the decades he spent as a commercial fisherman in Massachusetts and Alaska, during which he experienced "thousands" of whale sightings.
View the original article to see embedded media.
"I was stunned, because it's one of those thing that, you can tell the story and nobody's really gonna believe you," Addie later told CBS Boston. But catching it on video—oh my. And then the little baby, the juvenile whale jumped afterwards, just stunning. We were all gobsmacked.
"I've literally seen thousands of whales. I haven't yet run into anyone that's seen a triple synchronized beach," he continued. "A triple breach is unheard of and a synchronized triple breach is even rarer. It's once in a lifetime. Just very fortunate. I feel God shined down on me to allow me to capture that."
Since his video went viral, whale experts have reached out to Addie with theories about the aerial maneuvers, such as that the whales may have been attempting to remove parasites or aid digestion. According to Whale Watch Western Australia, other possible reasons for whales breaching are for communication or to claim territory.
But having witnessed the display firsthand, Addie thinks that the whales "were teaching or training" the younger whale. "Even some of the whale experts that have reached out to me, they’re all jealous because they’ve never seen it," he added.
Interestingly enough, Addie's sighting was not the only majestic humpback whale sighting in Provincetown this month. Just a few days before Addie's video went viral, another local, Kyle Curran, caught a group of whales breaching during a whale watching expedition.
Kate Laemmle, a naturalist with the New England Aquarium who was on the boat, likewise told CBS Boston that typically only about five to 10 percent of whale watching trips capture a breach.
"It's just been a fantastic summer," Laemmie gushed. "I mean, we have definitely a higher proportion of humpback whales than we can have in other seasons. Breaching, in general, we have the statistic of about five to 10 percent of our trips but it actually seems like in the last couple of weeks they've really been putting on a show!"
from Men's Journal https://ift.tt/PCx2pAU
No comments:
Post a Comment