Baby Sperm Whale

Guam Date-Time:
 

 

This was our email on June 15th.  It was sent out by Pete Peterson, the ex-owner of MDA, and the Chris referred to is Chris Bangs, the sales manager and photo pro.  We were also assisted by Roy Brown, the owner of Sea Odyssey II, who brought Chris out before Pete arrived.  Thanks Roy.

The photo's are below the story.  On June 23rd we have added the copyright information as the have been downloaded and sent to various news organizations without Chris's approval.  Chris also has a series of high resolution photos of the pod and the baby whale. Contact him at buyer@mdaguam.com for more info.

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Sometimes owning a dive business is really great.  Period.

I'm sitting here at the computer after having been on the BEST, I'll say it again, the BEST dive I've ever had.  I'd like to share it with you.  some quick dive details are  I never got deeper than 50 ft, used a little 35 cuft tank that I keep on my boat for deco's , etc., and had to go four miles offshore to make the dive.

Here's what happened:

I was finishing up a motorcycle safety course on Naval Station (to ride on the bases) and I called the store when I was finished, kind of checking in but not really wanting to go to work for the afternoon.  My wife told me that they had been trying to get me on my cell phone for the last hour, but I kept it off during the class.  She also told me that Chris had made a command decision (work in store vs diving...no contest), had just left and was out another small boat snorkeling with whales.  No kidding!

I called Sea Fantasy (our dolphin watching boat) and they confirmed that not only were there whales, but they were not the "usual" large pilot whales.  They were sperm whales. And... there was a very small one right in the middle of them.  The whales were coming right up to the stationary boat, and when you consider that the larger 55-60' whales are considerably bigger than our 42' boat, this can be a bit unsettling for the captain.   Skip (captain) also confirmed that the mother and baby still had the long umbilical cord attached, so the baby was almost undoubtedly born this morning!

I grabbed my video camera and went to Agat, untied my boat in record time, and headed out. By the time I got out there Chris had shot FIVE rolls of film, and the baby came within 6-7 ft from him!   Since I outrank him I politely requested that he get his ass in my boat and drive.  He got in and kept saying things like, "Oh my god, these whales are HUGE"  and "unbelievable" and things of this nature.  I politely (again) told him to shut up and drive.  He did.

I jumped over the side, flipped over, there in front of me, I'd say about 15-20 ' away, were these absolutely magnificent creatures kind of basking at the surface. Right in the middle of them was that baby one, and sure enough, there was the umbilical cord trailing behind it.  To its side was the mother, and the rest of the umbilical cord was there behind her.  I remember thinking that "if only I could have been out here this morning I might have gotten the birth".

I cannot fully describe what I was feeling and what it's like to be the only human being on scuba in the middle of a pod of 8 sperm whales.  No way.   It's both an amazing adrenalin rush, and at the same time I had the feeling that I was pretty damned insignificant out here.  I was looking at these gentle giants, some of which were really huge, and I can pretty much guarantee that some of the eyes alone were as big as my head!    I was watching a baby sperm whale try to suckle on its mother.   Live.  Real.  Not on Discovery channel.

I've never jumped heavily on the bandwagon as a "whale lover" but to watch something that powerful and that large look so graceful, and to see the almost continual contact between all of the adults and the baby, I would defy anyone who advocates killing whales for commercial food to experience the same thing and still want to harm them.

I estimate that I was in the water about 25 minutes with them. They literally circled me a couple of times so I was able to get enough footage of the baby, mother, and the pod to put together a piece sometime in the future.  Great.  BUT, for me,  the absolute best time was when I turned the camera off, hung there, and just watched.

I hope everyone of you someday can experience the same thing.  I haven't stopped smiling yet!

 

>The pod with the newborn whale.  The left photo gives a much clearer size relationship.

The "baby".  These are just 3 of the many photos that Chris Bangs took that day.