A diverse group of marine mammals, whales have fascinated us humans for centuries. Chances are, the creatures have captivated us since pretty much the dawn of history. They’re incredible creatures, really. They can weigh tons, and we’re talking literal tons; the blue whale, for example, is considered the largest creature that has ever existed on this planet. They can also be horrid and terrifying predators; however, they tend to eat fish.
We’re fascinated by whales for good reasons, obviously. There’s an entire industry that revolves around simply watching them do their thing. There are cultures out there that actually hold funerals for whales, which is adorable.
Many are concerned that certain species of whales may go extinct. One type of whale is sadly considered critically endangered.
Also, Moby Dick is a pretty good read. In case you’re the one person out there who has never heard of the book, it is largely about a whale.
Still, despite our fascination over whales, we’ve always kind of had to wonder if whales actually care about us as much as we care about them. Well, it turns out they may! They’re apparently interested in saving us from sharks.
Sharks definitely don’t care about us, by the way. They can even replace their own teeth, and they will use those replaceable teeth to rip our flesh from our bones.
Back to the whales, though! Recently, a whale saved a marine biologist from a shark. It was a giant humpback whale, which is the sort of whale that whale watchers really enjoy observing. They’re also huge, and often weigh close to 80,000 pounds.
Humpback whales were once targeted by the whaling industry, which is a shame, because apparently they’re our friends. The marine biologist Nan Hauser was literally saved by one. Using its head and mouth, the friendly whale pushed Nan to safety while she was being targeted by a shark. At one point, the whale actually lifted the marine biologist out of the water, thereby saving her life.
Nan, who is 63, was filmed being saved by the whale; also, we should clearly give an adorable name to that whale.
Nan says that being saved as she was is proof that whales are clearly among the nicest of the creatures we share a planet with. As she put it, they have “an instinct” to protect other species. That’s just their nature, she said.
The footage is really quite interesting; Nan was being targeted by a shark that was only 15 feet large. She got saved by a mammal who weighed close to 50,000 pounds. The whale even used his or her tail to slap the pesky shark.
Naturally, Nan didn’t escape the encounter with the shark or the whale completely unscathed. Again, the whale weighs 50,000 pounds, and it did push Nan around for 10 minutes or so.
That said, Nan is likely alive today because the whale protected her from a shark via its enormous pectoral fin. The biologist was worried that the whale would inadvertently kill her, which is understandable because the thing was simply enormous. There was concern that it would break her bones or accidentally rupture internal organs.
She tried not to panic. Like many animals, whales can sense fear and don’t exactly respond to it in the best of ways. She didn’t notice the shark at first because she was completely focused on what the whale was doing—and what the whale was doing was saving her life! She didn’t know that at the time, however, and was quite convinced her encounter with the whale would result in death.
But at the end of the day, things worked out. Nan is alive to study our seas, and whales might be in the running to be man’s best friend.
It kind of makes you feel bad about the fact we keep whales in captivity, doesn’t it? We try to breed them while they’re in captivity, and those attempts are generally unsuccessful, and as a result we’re harming other mammals that are happy to protect us from aquatic creatures who would happily make us their lunch.
Don’t worry too much about the whales, though; they’re protected by international law. You want to know who to worry about? Worry about the sharks. If Sharknado has taught us anything, it is that humanity knows exactly what those terrifying creatures are truly up to, and we’re willing to make silly horror movies about their behavior.
The whales, though? Unlike sharks, they are definitely okay in our book.