Underwater World Journal - The Story of Touching a Wild Gray Whale

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The Story of Touching a Wild Gray Whale

Sunday, October 01, 2006 | Posted to Creatures of underwater

A dedication to Luna, a magical Orca whale who died Friday, March 10th in Canada.

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The following true story is dedicated to Luna, a very special orca whale, that died a tragic death March 10th, 2006 doing one of the things he loved doing: chasing around his favourite boats in the waters of Nootka Sound British Columbia, Canada. (Links to the history of very special orca whale Luna, and two Flickr friends sites with Luna photos & tribute, can be found at the end of my gray whale story

Many years ago...

A few people came to the area this whale was feeding because they had heard she was friendly and at times approaching select small vessels to be touched. I was with a few friends on a boat when she surfaced close by then slowly swam right up to us, turning her massive frame to gently lay her body full-length along side the boat. We were all stunned of course, not having seen this before and not being sure just how to react—you know—fight or flight!.

The whale just stayed there and it was Sharon that realized this whale was no harm, quite the contrary, was reaching out to us. It was at that point Sharron leaned way over the side of the boat, placed two hands on the whales side and planted one big sustained kiss!

The gray whale rolled onto her side, looking at us with her eye and held herself in this position. Sharron was still kissing this whale when her husband Rod decided it was okay to also touch the whale.

Now that Sharron showed us guys this whale meant no harm, were all gung-ho to give the whale a friendly pat or two—but I missed my chance because I took these photos and the whale slid away and down into the depths.

We waited for her awhile then started the outboard engines and drove to another part of the inlet where we saw a whale.

It was on our way back across the inlets when Sharron called into my ear over the sound of our two roaring boat motors, “Harmony”—She yelled, “What?”, I called back. She said, “The name of that whale, it’s Harmony!” - “Perfect” I thought.

We stopped the boat again near where we had seen a whale on the surface moments before. We were not sure if it was our new friendly whale or one of the three others in the area. But all of a sudden a whale was at the side of our boat, close but not close enough to touch. Again she approached our boat and paused a moment then slid back under the water. The whitish clusters are large barnacles unique to the gray whale. I really wanted to touch this whale like the others in the boat had: surely this was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity! Meanwhile I took this and the following photos.

Harmony had descended into the deep waters a long while so we decided to leave and had just started both outboard motors and were about to put them in gear when Harmony silently & suddenly rose straight up out of the water between the two outboards and held herself there!

Being closest to the stern I was only a few feet from her. I felt she came to say hi to me. I reached out and placed both my hands on her head and held them there — some kind of magic was exchanged between us and I felt feelings I have no words for. As I touched her I felt she was also touching me. At contact she held her massive body in place by moving her tail back and forth, allowing for the exchange. Her skin felt leathery yet warm and I knew she could feel my comparably small hands on her head. I could not believe it was really happening and it changed the way I perceive my relationship with all other creatures on this planet.

I began to stroke her head and she seemed to gently lean into my touch. At one point, a palm-sized piece of her skin sloughed off into my hand. It was a translucent gray with her whitish pigments embedded within; I kept it. Then my friend Rod reached out and touched her, this is his hand doing that in the above photo.

Our friendly whale, Harmony, made one last turn near our boat and then raised her fluke high and disappeared into the dark depths on her way to feed back towards the open ocean.

Post script:

Some boaters claim they have seen Harmony again over the years but there are no recent photos to compare with to be sure. This series was shot in Clayoquot Sound, on westcoast of Vancouver Island, Canada.

Touching A Gray Whale story text and photos are copyright of Leigh Hilbert 2002.

© Copyright 2006, Underwater World Journal