The Third Whale Encounter
My third experience at sighting a whale occurred, on January 10, 2008, just after returning from my first deployment as an adjunct English instructor with Central Texas College (Navy College) aboard the USS Kearsarge in the Middle East. It was my second day out on the water since returning home, and once again the prevailing winds and currents forced me to go south into both so the trip home would be less grueling. The strong wind was actually blowing slightly southwest. Whenever the wind is over 15 knots out of the west or almost west, it's a good idea to stay fairly close to shore to avoid paddling into a strong wind on the return trip to my beach. This was one of those days. It is not unusual on such days heading south to find myself more than three miles out to sea before paddling three miles south.
On this particular day, I had managed to stray only about two miles off the beach before reaching the three-mile mark south of my beach. The three-mile mark is the old Holiday Inn in Jacksonville Beach (which is now a Marriott Courtyard). Approaching the mark, I noticed something very unusual off to my left front, and it was not long before the possibility occurred to me that it could be a Right whale. The long black figure toward which I paddled as quickly as possible soon became two black figures: one on top of the other. My thought at the time was that I had arrived on the scene moments after a large female Right whale had given birth to a beautiful calf, which she was carrying on her back upon my arrival. It was magnificent. Mother and calf swam south, then north, then south again, with the calf occasionally slipping off the mother’s back only to be helped back up again by the mother.
I sat right there for about an hour and twenty minutes, enjoying a show that few people have the luck to witness in the wild, and enjoyed every minute of it. A couple Navy helicopters that circled overhead, no doubt as amazed as I by what they were seeing below them, disturbed my private show, but only temporarily. After a few minutes, they flew off to finish their missions. Shortly after the copters departed, though, a fixed-wing Cessna (push – puller) appeared above me and circled for quite a while. I did not realize at the time that that Cessna belonged to a Right whale research team from the New England Aquarium, and flew over the calving grounds between Georgia and Florida regularly during the calving season. I found this photo of the plane on the website for the New England Aquarium.
A little more investigation, using E-Mail, determined that the researcher from the New England Aquarium, Monica Zani, who was aboard that Cessna, had alerted the Marine Patrol of my presence in the near (too near) vicinity of the whale. Here's a photo of Monica from the same website.
My happiness at being a witness to this special event was spoiled by the arrival of a Florida Marine Patrol boat that sped up behind me. One of the young officers aboard leaned over his large boat and asked if I were aware that according to law nobody could be within 500 yards of a Right whale. I said I apparently was not aware of that law, as I was within about 40 yards of two of them at the moment. Luckily neither officer had ever seen a Right whale, and the excitement of the moment must have made them less inclined to make me pay for having caused their good fortune (had they not been alerted by the Cessna of my lawbreaking, they would still be waiting to see their first Right whale – thanks, Monica Zani). It didn't hurt that one of the officers was retired Navy, and was interested to hear about my teaching stint aboard the USS Kearsarge. I got away with only a warning citation from the Marine Patrol officers, and they and I left the area. It was a great day, and I was now in possession of my second warning citation from the Florida Marine Patrol. For anyone counting, my third whale encounter had allowed me to be up close and personal with a total of five whales: three adults and two calves. Wow! Either my luck is running extremely high, or God is planning on using me in a sequel to the Jonah story.
Monica Zani, the New England Aquarium researcher who threw me under the bus, has become a friend, and she sent me this photo of the whale and calf taken by her from the plane that day. The Mother is named "Arpeggio." She gave birth, on December 20, 2007, so the unnamed calf was less than a month old on the day we met.
