Imagine going out for a leisurely row when you spot one of Earth’s most massive creatures?
Then 11 more show up!
That’s what happened to Valentin Villalba and Diego Schulz during a recent paddle board session where they were surrounded by a pod of 12 whales.
The two men were paddle-boarding in Monte Hermoso, Argentina when they caught their encounter with the whales on video.
The video shows two massive whales approaching one of the paddle boarders.
“How, how are you?” the paddle boarder asks the whale in Spanish.
The other paddle boarder reaches his hand out to touch one of the whales saying that he’s pretty sure that they won’t mind.
According to Fox Wilmington, the paddle boarders said they weren’t afraid at all.
In fact, quite the opposite. They were in awe that they were able to have this incredible experience.
One of the whales even got up real close and knocked one of the paddle boarders off of his board.
But the two men still weren’t bothered.
They were reeling with joy. And the paddle boarder just got right back up on his board again.
Their video was viewed more than 187,000 times on Inside Edition’s YouTube page.
“They just wanted to reach out and pet the human the way the human tried to reach out and pet it,” said one commenter.
“The whales were just on a people-watching tour that guarantees a human sighting,” said another.
It isn’t clear exactly what kind of whale is featured in the video but someone in the comments guessed that it could be a bowhead whale, but those whales are only found in the Arctic.
According to NOAA Fisheries, the bowhead whale, or Balaena mysticetus, is an endangered species. According to the International Whaling Commission are 35 different kinds of species of cetaceans, or whales/dolphins/or porpoises, living off the cost of Argentina.
A popular Argentinian whale is the southern right whale or Eubalaena australis.
The southern right whale is a baleen whale and one of three species classified as right whales that belong to the genus Eubalaena.
The southern right whale is the most abundant of those three species. These whales can grow to be 55 ft. in length and weigh up to 60 tons.
Southern right whales live south of the Equator at latitudes of 20 degrees and 60 degrees south.
The species has been able to rebound from centuries of commercial whaling.
Unliked their North Atlantic and North Pacific right whale counterparts which are considered endangered. The southern right whale is identifiable by its callosities on its head and its broad back that lacks a dorsal fin.
These whales are typically dark grey or black and can have white patches on their belly. Their callosities also appear white and in large colonies.
The testicles of right whales are likely to be the largest of any animal and with about 1,100 lbs. each.
Check out the video of the paddle boarders’ encounter with the 12 whales in the video below.
Please SHARE this with your friends and family.
