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The "surfer almost swallowed by whale" video explained
Across the internet and television today, the latest viral hit has been the woman surfing off of Santa Cruz, California who has an incredible encounter with a couple of migrating humpback whales.
Before writing for Gadling I spent 5 years leading humpback whale watching tours in Hawaii and Alaska, so it's safe to say I know a little bit about these creatures. Though the kayakers and surfer in the video are undoubtedly encroaching far too close to the animals (the Marine Mammal Protection Act stipulates that all boaters must maintain a 100 yard distance from humpback whales), the surfer was never in any REAL danger of being swallowed by the whale.
Landed on and crushed? Sure. But swallowed? Definitely not. Here's why:
As the video explains, the migrating humpback whales are engaged in a process known as lunge feeding. During lunge feeding, humpbacks will encircle a school of small fish such as herring or anchovies and trap them within a net of bubbles in a process known as "bubble-netting". Once the fish have clustered into a tightly packed bait ball, the whales use their peduncle muscle (the strongest in the animal kingdom) to lunge them forward and gulp the bait ball down into their expanded gullet.
Here's the catch, however. Though humpback whales can expand their ventral pleats while feeding to take in the volume of two African elephants, their throat opening is only the size of a grapefruit, so at worst, the surfer would be engulfed in the gullet of the whale and effectively spit back out, which if you ask me, would have made for a much better video.
Some have speculated that the video is so dramatic that it's a fake. Certainly the number one piece of evidence for this is the fact that the woman is wearing a bikini in the cold water that is characteristic of Santa Cruz in November. Allegedly the girl is allergic to neoprene, which explains her poor decision to paddle out next to 40 ton creatures in cold water with no wetsuit.
Incredible footage? Yes. Surfer almost swallowed? Not quite.
Filed under: North America, United States
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
musomesa Nov 5th 2011 8:08PM
With whales after you from below and gull after you from above it was a bad day to be an anchovy.
Cornell Nov 5th 2011 8:05PM
Before I would characterize this as "almost swallowed by whale", I would want to know whether the camera lens was long enough to have compacted the apparent distance between the surfer and the whale.
Mike Nov 5th 2011 8:30PM
Stupid people.
Beth Nov 5th 2011 8:57PM
I just seems fake to me. The waves created from that whale should of knocked her off that board and turned over the boat.
caligirl90972 Nov 6th 2011 1:39AM
I live 30 min away, trust me its real. People have been swarming to see them.
m Nov 5th 2011 9:11PM
Stupid girl.
roger Nov 5th 2011 11:12PM
i've watched this a couple of times. she seemed to startled by the whale, but never in any danger of falling off. what i am at a loss to explain is, why is this near naked female out in the middle of the bay on a surf board any way. watching her preen prior to the whale is what really confuses me.
Randi Nov 5th 2011 10:29PM
Play on the dinner plate, expect to get eaten....don't head out to get up close to lunge feeding whales! SO STUPID! They all deserved to get flipped off their equipment and tail slapped. Not only can you be fined by harrassing these animals by coming within 100 yards of them, but when a fly buzzes your head, what is your natural reaction?
jmj Nov 5th 2011 11:26PM
How do you know that they knew there were whales in the area? Maybe they thought they were at least 100 yards from the whales, and the whales wandered close to them.
caligirl90972 Nov 6th 2011 1:39AM
Everyone who lives near here knows there are whales in the area! they normally aren't so close to shore though. that why everyone has gone stupid and wants to get as close as possible.
Randi Nov 6th 2011 3:43PM
A humpback whale generally surfaces every 45 seconds or so to breathe. For a surfer to be THAT far beyond the surf zone, she was obviously heading out to see the whales, which means she knew the general viscinity of them. When whales are lunge feeding (which they obviously were) they stay within the same general area for quite a while. It really can't be explained any other way than sheer stupidity....and then to claim you almost got eaten! Ugh! Baleen Whale = no teeth. Mouth=big, throat=size of a grapefruit. You almost got forced to drown because you were stupid, maybe, but almost got eaten??? NO. If you are going to go out into their territory, you might think to research the animal first. Two situations could come of this: 1: you know you can be fined and don't do it, or 2: you know it's impossible for them to eat you so you do become all drama queen for news coverage.
Marvin E. Bailey Nov 6th 2011 3:33AM
So you're trying to tell me Jonah wasn't swallowed by a whale? It's in the Bible,dude, it can't be wrong.
Erst Nov 6th 2011 8:43AM
The word whale does not appear in the Bible, it states that Jonah was swallowed by a great fish.
Regarding whales, the author states that the humpback whale has a throat the side of a grapefruit, that doesn't mean that other whales don't have larger throats.
Amy Nov 6th 2011 8:53AM
The newer translations of The Bible say BIG FISH as opposed to whale.
Scroll half way down and read the part that says translation
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jonah
Marvin E. Bailey Nov 6th 2011 9:08AM
IT WAS JUST A JOKE :) And i'm an old guy, it was a "whale" when I was a kid and that's the last time I was in church.
pat Nov 6th 2011 9:40AM
she has no buisness out there bothering the whales anyway.. it makes me sick!!!!!!!!!!!!!.is nothing sacred?
v Nov 6th 2011 9:35AM
Those aren't humpbacks. Why would any credit worthy news reporter say those were? I guess a cow is a dog and an eagle is a penguin.
No wonder they put the joke politicians on their shows saying they are newsworthy.
John Stewart from the Daily Show had it right just like we all know. It's not that the media is left wing. It is that they are capitalist, sensationalist and lazy. Lazy lazy lazy.
Randi Nov 6th 2011 3:49PM
I'm a marine educator regarding whales/dolphins/etc. off of our coast and these are humpbacks. You can tell because of the obvious bumps on the rostrum as well as the expanding throat/throat grooves.
Veronica. Nov 6th 2011 9:46AM
Reasons why it's fake:
There was a help crew or something with her prior to the whole whale thing.
The waves from the wale would've knocked her off of her board.
If it some how is real.. The waves from the wale didn't so much as reach her, the wale could have been a mile away.
Oh, someone just HAPPENED to be filming.
WILMA Nov 6th 2011 11:17AM
With global warming the magna tide has changed this pushes the feeding fish closer to land and therefore the larger fish follow. Many homing whales and larger fish have changed their paths and are being found thousands of miles from their normal pathways for migration.