Close Encounter... Too Close For Comfort!

StarNewsOnline.com: The Voice of Southeastern North Carolina:

"Ellis Miller found himself face-to-face with an orca charging at him in 4 feet of water Saturday in Helm Bay. The animal, estimated to be more than 25 feet long, bumped but did not bite him.

'I looked underwater and there was this huge head right in front of me,' Ellis told the Ketchikan Daily News.

Biologists said whale may have been curious or it may have aborted an attack.

'If it had wanted to take him, it would have,' said Gary Freitag"

Wow, that must have been one bizarre encounter. What a close one too!

Gary

Migrating Around Africa

Humpback whale's movements make history:

"For the first time, a genetic study has followed a humpback whale from one ocean basin to another, adding to the knowledge of whales' migratory patterns.

Researchers reporting in the most recent issue of the Royal Society's Biology Letters, said a male humpback whale first sighted in Madagascar's Antongil Bay in 2000 was found in 2002 swimming off the coast of Loango National Park in Gabon -- on the other side of the African continent."

Chalking one up for whale research. What a breakthrough in knowledge, now if only they could keep track of them in an easy way.

All the more we know about whales, the more we'll be able to help them survive.

Gary