Whale struck by ferry

Marco Flamingo · Posted: Wed May 29, 2019 9:51 am Post subject: Whale struck by ferry

We were sitting in our apartment having a glass of wine when Beth said that she saw a whale spout in front of the Bell Harbor Marina. Usually we see dolphins or sea lions, so I was skeptical. Sure enough, it was travelling very slowly south towards the mouth of the Duwamish River. Then it surfaced right in front of the ferry Wenatchee. I told Beth that the ferry was going right over it. About 5 seconds later I could see something in the ferry's wake. At first I thought that it was an orange die marker or something. Then it flailed around and spouted a few times. Lots of blood in the water. It stayed close to the surface for maybe 10 minutes. Enough time for us to call 911 (who else?) and get in touch with Seattle PD. The spouts got really little and frequent and then it disappeared.

Other than that, a lovely evening.

Mark

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/ferry-strikes-whale-near-seattle-n1011211

cmetzenberg · Posted: Wed May 29, 2019 11:30 am Post subject:

Whales don't move for ships. If they are lucky the ships sometimes see them and more for them. On more than a few occasions I've had to come hardover on the tankers I used to work on to avoid a whale. Though I couldn't honestly tell you that i'm sure I never hit one, in the dead of night we wouldn't even notice hitting something that small.