Re: [Paddlewise] Whales (long)

Jackie wrote:

>>Melissa,

Where did you say all of this is happening (the hundreds of paddlers
chasing the whales and your intimate interaction with these whales)?  
I must have missed your message about where all of this is taking 
place.

Jackie<<


Hi Jackie,

The place where I live and regularly paddle with the Gray Whales is 
on the outer coast of WA state (USA for those not familiar with this 
area).  I live in Copalis Beach (I recently moved a few miles up the 
coast from where I was in Ocean Shores), and the whales hang out in 
and around Grays Harbor and along the coast.  

The place where I witnessed the terrible paddler behavior was in 
Puget Sound a few years ago - when a pod of Orcas were hanging out in 
Dyes Inlet (near Bremerton) for a while.  I went there a couple of 
times.  The first time I went it was stormy, so only myself and a few 
other paddlers were there - no motor boats at all.  It was a very 
dramatic setting with the weather, and the experience was wonderful, 
with all 19 whales swimming and breaching amongst us for hours.  The 
next time I went there, it was very sunny, and there were hundreds of 
motor boaters and paddlers (I'm not kidding - hundreds!).  They were 
all chasing the whales around, despite the Marine Fisheries people 
trying to get people to stop.  It was so disgusting that I just left 
and didn't come back during the rest of the whale's stay in the 
inlet.

Melissa



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