Nan Hauser had always predicted that she was going to be killed by a whale. For most of us, this statement would be more than a little out there – but Nan is a Marine Biologist, who has spent the last 28 years dedicating her life to protecting whales.
She spends a lot of time in the water with these giant creatures, analysing their movements and recording data.
“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, told Press Herald.
But one October morning, when Nan was diving in waters off of the Cook Islands in the South Pacific, the total opposite happened. A whale, who Nan thought was trying to kill her, was actually saving her life.
Nan had been searching for whales to study, and after spotting a humpback whale, she decided to swim over to get a closer look. But as she approached, the whale began to act oddly.
“That whale was intent on keeping me away and hiding me and I didn’t know why,” Nan told The Dodo. “He came right for me he didn’t stop. He kept pushing me and I was like ‘Whoa, whoa,’ you know.”
Nan struggled to get away from the whale, but each time she tried to move, he kept on nudging her closer to him. In all her years of studying whales, Nan had never seen anything like it, and she was totally clueless about what to do.
“He put his eye next to my eye. I was like what is going on here. He didn’t want to hurt me,” Nan recalled. “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!”
The longer the whale held onto Nan, the more scared she began to feel. It was as if her life was in danger.
“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.’”
Nan rolled around with the whale for over ten agonizing minutes before she realized what was actually going on.
It turned out that there was a huge tiger shark lurking in the shadows, and the whale was doing its best to save Nan.
Eventually, the shark disappeared, and the whale finally let Nan go. She got back onto her boat feeling shaken up and overcome with emotion.
“I went, ‘Oh my God, he was protecting me,” Nan 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.”
When Nan looked out to sea, she could still see the whale close by, and he was spouting out of his blow hole as if to say, “I’m glad you’re safe!”
“I love you too, I do. I love you,” Nan told the whale in response.
Nan was completely astonished by what she had seen that day, and to her, it was proof of just what selfless creatures whales are.
“These animals have an altruistic behavior they will risk themselves to save another species like a fireman would run into a house on fire.” Nan explained. “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.”
You can watch her incredible experience below.
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