Trending
Humpback whale won’t stop nudging biologist, later realizes he was saving her life
She thought he was going to kill her. He wanted just the opposite. 🐋💘
Jonathan Maes
11.30.20

If there was something that Nan Hauser had always thought, it’s that her life would end because of a whale.

Admittedly, that’s definitely not something that everybody can relate to, but as a marine biologist, Nan comes into contact with whales almost on a daily basis. She’s been working for almost three decades to protect the ocean wildlife and whales in particular.

Press Herald
Source:
Press Herald

She’s absolutely fascinated by the giant sea animals and has already spent thousands of hours in their vicinity studying them.

Caters Clips - YouTube screenshot
Source:
Caters Clips - YouTube screenshot

Even though the whales are usually quite pacific and friendly if unprovoked, things can always go unexpectedly wrong. For that reason, the marine biologist made the strong statement that she’d be killed by a whale.

“I’ve always said I’d be killed by a whale,” Nan, a renowned marine biologist and President and Director of the Center for Cetacean Research and Conservation and Director of the Cook Islands Whale & Wildlife Centre, she said in an interview with Press Herald.

Caters Clips - YouTube screenshot
Source:
Caters Clips - YouTube screenshot

One day when she was diving in the waters nearby the Pacific Cook Islands, she thought that a whale would actually try to attack her.

She didn’t realize that the whale was trying to save her life.

Nan was convinced that this whale was about to attack and kill her, but it turns out that the giant and gentle sea creature only had the best intentions in mind.

Caters Clips - YouTube screenshot
Source:
Caters Clips - YouTube screenshot

It all started when she spotted the whale in question, a humpback, while she was in the field studying them. Once she spotted him, she decided to take a closer look and swam towards him.

As soon as the marine biologist got closer, the sea creature started to act very strangely, and it immediately startled Nan.

Caters Clips - YouTube screenshot
Source:
Caters Clips - YouTube screenshot

“That whale was intent on keeping me away and hiding me and I didn’t know why,” she said to The Dodo. “He came right for me he didn’t stop. He kept pushing me and I was like ‘Whoa, whoa,’ you know.”

Her immediate instinct was to move away from the whale.

She didn’t want to get all the attention from this large animal who could devour her in mere minutes.

Caters Clips - YouTube screenshot
Source:
Caters Clips - YouTube screenshot

She struggled to get farther away, but she also couldn’t help but notice that the whale would try and get back closer and closer to her.

This was something Nan hadn’t seen in her 28-year-career, and she had no idea what was going on.

“He put his eye next to my eye. I was like what is going on here. He didn’t want to hurt me,” the woman recalls. “He had me on his head and he rolled me over and I was on his chin and then I was down his pectoral fin and he wouldn’t leave me alone. He wouldn’t stop!”

Caters Clips - YouTube screenshot
Source:
Caters Clips - YouTube screenshot

Evidently, Nan started to panic and was extremely scared.

She was convinced that her final hour had struck at the hands of this humpback whale.

“I was really scared. I mean, who wouldn’t be scared? Rolling around and rolling down the back of a whale,” Nan said. “I kept thinking, ‘Get me out of here!’ Then he lifted me up on his pec fin. Literally out of the water and I’m yelling to everybody on my boat, ‘Somebody come help me.’”

For a good ten minutes, Nan has never felt more scared in her life.

Caters Clips - YouTube screenshot
Source:
Caters Clips - YouTube screenshot

However, then it struck her that something else was going on entirely. This whale only wanted to save Nan and get her out of there.

There was a huge tiger shark lurking not very far away.

Luckily, the shark eventually got clear of the area, and that’s when the humpback whale started to let Nan go, so to speak. If the whale hadn’t kept her busy, it’s likely that she would’ve encountered the shark, which likely wouldn’t end well.

Caters Clips - YouTube screenshot
Source:
Caters Clips - YouTube screenshot

Once the woman realized what was going on, she was understandably very emotional and overwhelmed because of the whole situation.

“I went, ‘Oh my God, he was protecting me,” she recalled. “I got to the back of the boat and I was just laughing but it was sort of a nervous laugh like I lived through this. Why did this happen to me? This is crazy and I’ve been doing this for 28 years.”

Nan and the whale even exchanged a quick look before she got out of the water, and the sea creature was spouting out of his blowhole as a goodbye.

Caters Clips - YouTube screenshot
Source:
Caters Clips - YouTube screenshot

“I love you too, I do. I love you,” the woman answered him.

Even though she’s been in this field for so long, Nan has never encountered something like this and was completely astonished.

“These animals have an altruistic behavior they will risk themselves to save another species like a fireman would run into a house on fire,” she concluded. “I can’t say for sure what was going on in his head but he protected me from potential danger. This was a once in a lifetime experience.”

Be sure to check out Nan’s incredible story in the video below.

Please SHARE this with your friends and family.

Advertisement