Nature In Action: Up Close And Very Personal…
Man goes out in boat (good idea). Takes wife, 2-year-ol daughter and neighbor kid (good idea). Decides to follow pod of Killer Whales (very, very–and I can’t stress this strongly enough–bad idea). Read all about the Graner family’s unbelievable day on the water, here. Here’s just some of the action:
“In all, at least 30 killer whales had congregated — no males, just adult females and juveniles. Graner thinks this was a training session, with the adults teaching the juveniles how to hunt.
By the time his pod arrived, he said, the grays already seemed exhausted. But the mother hadn’t given up.
“She was rolling around her calf,” he said, “slicing with her pectoral, making a huge spray, all to get the killers away from her baby.”
Still, they came at her from all sides, jumping on her head and her baby’s, trying to drown them both. “They’re really good at what they do,” Graner said, “very coordinated in terms of group activities.”
Suddenly the mother gray turned and headed, full speed, straight for the boat, with the orcas still going at her.
It was right about then, Graner believes, that they got the calf.
“I have a gut feeling,” he said. At any rate, he never saw it again.
But most of his attention was on the mother, who had apparently decided to hide under his boat. It was not a good fit: 45-foot whale, 28-foot boat.
Her pursuers kept attacking, and she kept trying to beat them off. But she didn’t always hit what she meant to. She hit the boat’s outdrive — the transmission to the propeller — and broke it off.”
Here’s another report on the attack. Don’t think Graner’s little daughter Jasmin will be boating again anytime soon. I wonder if his wife is speaking to him yet…
Serious Sushi: “Heh-heh. That idiot in the boat wanted a show for his kid. Wonder how he’s liking it so far…?”
(Photo Sequence: Roger Wolfe)
