Humpback whales boat whale show to families near Campbell River

The family was initially "feared" by the giant creatures that could have flipped the boat out of the water.

Cumberland Family on a Boat This week, whales off Vancouver Island What they wanted to find got much more than they negotiated.

Humpback whales illuminated the ship and stayed within a few feet of the family boat for over an hour.

For "school bus size," the humpback whale swam under and on both sides of her family's 19-foot boat, spinning and tapping its huge tail and front fins. Aleks Mounts, who filmed the encounter and posted it on the YouTube channel, said.

"I just didn't want to leave," said Alex Bowman, Mount's ex-wife and mother of two sons, 9 and 13. ..

Mount found the whale on Tuesday, about 100 meters northeast of the Campbell River.

"I immediately stopped the engine because I wanted to respect the rules about whales," he said.

However, the humpback whale dived and emerged beneath the boat about a minute later. He thought the whale would go on, but it stayed. According to Mount, the family was initially "feared" by the giant creatures that could have flipped the boat out of the water.

He hesitated to restart the engine for fear that the propeller would hurt the humpback whale.

However, the encounter seemed to be very quick and friendly.

The whale swam under and along both sides of the boat, then struck with a spinning tail and flippers within an inch of the boat. It often lifted and sprayed the family out of the atrium. "I can taste it ... his breath isn't bad," Mount said during the shoot.

He said the barnacle-studded fins left the whale in contact with the boat at one point, leaving some scratches and slightly bent rails.

"He waved at us and threw it violently into the water. He was doing these yoga moves. It was crazy and I It was something that none of us had seen, "Mount said.

"I can't believe how calm it is and how much I'm aware of it."

Bowman said: He seemed to be more interested in us than we were.

The whale was later identified as a young man named Neowise. Humpback whales are identified by a unique trematode underside pattern, similar to a human fingerprint.

Andrew Trites, director of marine mammal research at the University of British Columbia, said boat encounters with humpback whales are uncommon. However, he anticipates a closer encounter as the species continues to make a major comeback from the whaling slaughter in the early 1900s and becomes extinct in the Salish Sea.

Whales may have been attracted to boat depth viewfinders or fishfinders that use sound waves to determine water depth, Trites said.

Sound waves are similar to the vocalizations that whales use to communicate with each other, he said, and scientists are studying possible relationships between depth detectors and whales.

"It's a high-frequency sound, a thin beam that doesn't hurt whales, but whales are very loud and love to communicate," Trites said.

Humpback whales were water-fed here in BC, young whales could understand the depth finder as a "love song" and listen to sound waves to "get joy as part of their social interaction" Mr Trites said he was sexual.

"Otherwise, the boat is inanimate," he said.

Mount said the depth finder was on when he saw the whale and turned off when he turned off the boat engine.

Trit is worried that increased encounters can pose a "great risk" to boaters. Male humpback whales typically weigh more than 10,000 kilograms and often have no control over their large bodies or "rough" flippers.

"They are huge, but quite clumsy," Trites said, and if a boat is destroyed and a fluke or flippers collide, the occupants can be at great risk.

He recommends that boaters turn off the depth sounder when looking at whales, and if the whales are too close, keep them away to maintain a safe distance.