A woman on a surfboard and two people aboard a kayak were nearly
engulfed by a humpback whale that charged out of the water, its mouth
agape, just a few feet away.
Barb Roettger's video of the amazing
encounter, which occurred near Santa Cruz, Calif., was posted Wednesday.
The incident is one of several recent close calls in the area, where a
small pod of humpback whales
has been surface lunge-feeding on anchovies unusually close to shore.
They've become a major draw for kayakers and boaters and at least one
kayaker has been capsized, and a sailboat was struck by a whale. This
circus atmosphere has led to an enforcement presence in an attempt to
keep people at a safe distance from the potentially dangerous
leviathans.
"We had our enforcement guy out on the Harbor Patrol boat yesterday
trying to clear people away from the whales," Paul Michel,
superintendent for the Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary, told the Santa Cruz Sentinel
on Wednesday. "We were out there again today on the water but of course
the whales moved off. Once the bait fish went away the small pod
dispersed. Wherever there is food they will be, so they could come back
and we will keep enforcement going through the weekend."
Officers
with the California Department of Fish and Game and Santa Cruz Harbor
Patrol also have been on the water cautioning boaters and kayakers,
explaining that the whales are protected by federal law and harassing
them in any way can draw fines of between $2,500 and $32,000. People for
the most part were being cooperative.
Humpback whales, which can
measure to 50 feet and weigh 40 tons, are easy to locate because while
feeding, they herd giant schools of anchovies to the surface, and birds
diving on the bait fish give away the presence of whales. Of course,
when the whales are lunge-feeding vertically, breaking the surface with
open mouths spilling with anchovies, they're nearly impossible to miss
from any nearby vantage point.
