NYCkayaker Poop Re: Wow.

[bonnie13 at earthlink.net]

Dunno, Will, I wouldn't abandon all hope - humpbacks are BIG animals. 

Some humpback whale facts from antarticconnection.com

They are 40 to 50 feet long 

Their flippers can be 1/3 of their body length - up to 16 feet long on some individuals. 

http://www.antarcticconnection.com/antarctic/wildlife/whales/humpback.shtml

The kayaks look to be Ocean Kayak tandems - a Malibu Two, which is a very common rental out there, is only 12 feet long.

So fins longer than kayaks could definitely happen. It's also not unusual for a pod of humpbacks to play for quite some time, breaching, spyhopping & tail slapping repeatedly. My folks have followed a pod that was doing that along the coast near Hanauma Bay for an hour - they were in a car & were easily able to keep the whales in view as the pod splashed its way down the coast - my folks would pull off to the shoulder of the road or a scenic overlook, watch as the whales slowly moved along & as the pod passed by, my folks would get back in the car & drive to the next place they could get off the road. 

If a couple of kayakers were in the wrong place and a photographer with a zoom lens were in the right place when a pod got to playing, I think a series like this could be pretty plausible. I do think the 2nd picture, the splash, is probably the splash after a breach, not the splash of the fin as the article suggests.

The killer whale roll video, on the other hand, sent me straight for Snopes. 

http://www.snopes.com/photos/animals/kayak.asp

Snopes also checked out the famous kayak & great white shark video - that one was real -  

http://www.snopes.com/photos/animals/sharkkayak.asp

Maybe we can get Snopes to weigh in on these shots. 

Here's another very cool cetacean shot:

http://www.mnh.si.edu/exhibits/natures_best_2006/gallery/humpbackwhaleanddolphin.html



  

-----Original Message-----
>From: William <haawill at yahoo.com>
>Sent: Mar 4, 2008 8:56 PM
>To: NYCkayaker at rockandwater.net
>Subject: NYCkayaker Poop Re:  Wow.
>
>David  .. you're such a PARTY POOPER!  8-p ! 
>
>
>--- David Gottlieb <peekamoose at optonline.net> wrote:
>
>> I hate to be the one to break the amazement, (and I
>> hope I'm wrong) but
>> those photos appear to be extremely fallacious. The
>> Daily Mail is known for
>> its sensational content... These photos
>> unfortunately appear to be all out
>> of proportion to the size of the whale and the
>> kayakers.