Watch: Humpback Whale Protects Snorkeler From Tiger Shark Attack [View all]

[Judi Lynn]

BY SUMAN VARANDANI @SUMAN09 ON 01/09/18 AT 1:04 AM


A Maine woman claimed in a viral video that a 50,000-pound humpback whale protected her from a shark attack while she was snorkeling near the Cook Islands in the South Pacific. The video, which was published Monday on YouTube, shows the moment the whale pushed the snorkeler through the water as a large tiger shark was seen lurking close.

Whale biologist Nan Hauser, 63, a Brunswick native, spoke to the Daily Mirror when she said that this was the first such evidence of whales’ protective nature. She said that the whale moved to keep her from a nearby shark, by nudging her with its head, tucking her under its giant pectoral fin and even lifting her out of the water at one point.

The incident took place in October 2017 but the video was circulated widely on social media on Monday.

“I’ve spent 28 years underwater with whales, and have never had a whale so tactile and so insistent on putting me on his head, or belly, or back, or, most of all, trying to tuck me under his huge pectoral fin,” Hauser told the Mirror. “I never took my eyes off him which is why I didn’t see the shark right away.

More:
http://www.ibtimes.com/watch-humpback-whale-protects-snorkeler-tiger-shark-attack-2638940