Curious 50ft whale gently nudges woman’s paddleboard before swimming underneath it in rare close encounter off the coast of Argentina
- A drone pilot filmed the encounter between a large whale and a paddleboarder
- The southern right whale was swimming off Puerto Madryn, Argentina
- The large whale nudged the paddleboarder who managed to remain upright
A drone pilot captured incredible images of a large southern right whale ‘playing’ with a paddleboarder off the Argentinian coast.
The encounter, near Puerto Madryn, saw the 50ft whale nudge the woman’s paddleboard before diving below her.
Witness Oscar Comes, who runs a local water sports business, said: ‘They are rare moments, it is something that is prohibited.
‘It isn’t like you can go in a kayak, standup board, a boat, or whatever, to look for the animal.’
After nudging the paddleboard, the massive whale swam below the woman, pictured, off the coast of Puerto Madryn, Patagonia
The 50-foot long southern right whale nudged the paddleboard and pushed it forward
Southern right whales are making their annual migration off the Patagonian coast, drawing many tourists to the region to watch the magnificent creatures – from a distance.
Puerto Madryn’s tourism secretary Marcos Grosso said there an estimated 1,600 southern right whales in the region, and the whale watching season runs between May and December.
Southern right whales are making their annual migration off the Patagonian coast, drawing many tourists to the region
Puerto Madryn’s tourism secretary Marcos Grosso said there an estimated 1,600 Southern Right Whales in the region
SOUTHERN RIGHT WHALES WERE ALMOST HUNTED TO EXTINCTION
The southern right whale is a species of baleen whale which was once hunted to the brink of extinction by humans.
Hunting of the ocean giants was banned in 1935 but illegal Russian whaling operations continued until the late 1970s.
Southern right whales are huge, measuring up to 56 feet (17m) long for a fully-grown female or 49 feet (15m) for a male.
They can weigh up to 198,000lbs (90,000kg; 90 tonnes).
The whales are slow swimmers and naturally full of blubber, oil, meat and baleen (whalebone), all of which combined to make them prime targets for whalers.
Southern right whales live all over the southern hemisphere of the Earth and migrate every year to warmer waters to breed, often off the coast of South America, South Africa, Australia and New Zealand.
Their bodies are mostly black with patches of white on their underbelly and chin, and they lift their huge tails out of the water when starting to dive beneath the surface.
Source: Whale and Dolphin Conservation
Source: Read Full Article