Whale accidently whacks boy!

[roby jeff]

We were just 2 n. mile from Lucinda jetty Nth Queensland when a 10-12 me Humpback Whale was spottered . I stopped the boat in case it wanted some interaction and sure enough a couple of superb breaches and soon it was circling close to our boat....just beautiful to see. While I was contemplating dropping in the water behind the boat to see if he would approach and get his photo taken under water Andrew son lept in ...undies, mask & flippers!! Having swam with Minke whales, Manta Rays, reef sharks etc I presumed he would be cautious and let the whale come to him if it wanted to. BUT NO...Andrew incorrectly swam over to the whale ,all seemed cool for a some time until Andrew ended up over its tail which hit him gently but enough to startle the whale who gave a hard flip of its tail knocking Andy quite hard . Andy limp back to the boat minus a fin with some abrasion probably from barnacles on the whales tail and bruising which will take a few weeks to heal... i think it could have been worse!!
The Humpback soon came up nose in very close to the back of the boat and stopped as if to apologise and make sure Andy was OK. He stayed around the boat until we left about an hour later. I eventualy got in before we left with my snorkel and camera but it never came closer than 5 me. Not enough to me to get a decent underwater pic in poor visibility. .........Andrews Mum is recovering!!!

 

[vladimir]

Quite an experience! I'm glad your son is okay,

 

[The Chairman]

What a whale of a tale!

 

[Misa]

Damn, i`m glad you are ok, son!

Gl with recovery!

 

[vladimir]

i think it could have been worse!!

Yes, it could have been a lot worse. I remembered a story about some injuries on a whale-watching snorkeling trip off the Dominican Republic and dug up this account:

http://cathyfree.com/stories/rd_man_v_whale.pdf

Here's an excerpt:

Just as Janet ducked back under, the water filled with bubbles. She and the Thorntons were nearly on top of the whales, and the mother and her calf appeared to be surfacing. "We were drawn into the whales by the current," says Randy, "and that startled the baby and woke the mother." Randy put his hands out in front of him, but the effect was the same as trying to stop a runaway freight train. The mother whale
flipped her enormous tail up, smacking Randy in the right thigh with its 15-foot fluke, and then down, striking Janet on the left side from her hip to her head.

As Gwen was tossed 20 feet in the churning backwash, Randy felt himself sinking. His leg seared with pain, like somebody was stabbing him with a dagger. When he gathered the courage to look down, he saw his right leg was still attached but facing in the wrong direction. The force of the blow had snapped his thighbone in half like a dry twig. Incredibly, the break hadn't severed his femoral artery, or he'd have bled
to death in minutes. Using only his arms, Randy managed to swim ten feet to the surface. Where was Gwen? he wondered. Had she been hit too? "Somebody help!" he shouted, scrambling to stay afloat.

 

[Rick Murchison]

In an article in Scuba Times years ago either Fred Garth or Bret Gilliam (can't remember which) tells of a Silver Bank snorkeling event where he was pinned to the bottom by a whale for long enough to be thinking the whale was going to hold him down 'til he drowned.
Only a matter of time before there's a fatality.
Rick

 

[roby jeff]

thanks for good wishes and info..hopefully he and i have learned something from ours and others experiences.