Baby Sitting A Whale

John giving Sully a belly rub

Today is John’s 27th birthday.  We celebrated by getting up at 3 am to go babysit the rescued pilot whale baby.  Sully is a 3 year old baby boy whale that was found a few months ago beached on a popular beach resort.  When they found him he was very sick and weak, but now after a group of volunteers have been nursing him back to health he is a friendly 10ft long giant baby.  They made a sort of pen for him in the water.  Every morning at 6am George, an American dolphin trainer from the local dolphin academy, comes by on his boat and takes Sully “for a walk”.  Sully follows the little boat going full speed out for three miles and back for his daily excercise.  Sully can choose to swim free any time during these excursions but always follows George back for his belly scrub and hearty breakfast.  The local group is working with sailors and the Coast Guard to locate a pod of whales that Sully may join.

Sully the baby pilot whale

Pilot Whales are like giant dolphins, very social and incredibly intelligent.  But they need their groups in order to hunt, which is why Sully is waiting for a pod to swim along with.

While on whale watch we are responsible for making sure that Sully doesn’t hurt himself or get caught in the enclosure, since he loves rubbing up along the net for a good scratch.  During the day as it is a popular beach resort we are busy mostly making sure curious or drunk tourists don’t jump in the pen or get too close to the net.  Sully is incredibly friendly and normally likes to lounge around, but he is also a ten foot animal with breath taking speed and agility.  If he grabbed you to play, he could take you under water for over 15 minutes, which is a problem for humans.  One of the best aspects of being so close to Sully is that we get to scrub him.  There is this six foot pole with a brush on it.  When Sully wants a good belly rub he comes right up to where we are and swims back and forth with half closed eyes and squeals of contentment.  The noises melt most peoples hearts.  His squeals are close to the high pitched gurgles and squeals of a human infant.  It would be so tempting to reach in or jump in just to play with him; however, once in a while when he swims past with his dorsal fin out of the water and his ten foot black body easily gliding by, you can’t help but get a jolt.  At night if you saw him glide by you would instantly think of a giant shark.  It makes you step back and truly realize the awesome power that these animals have.

Ten Foot Baby

For me, dawn on the ocean is one of the most peaceful sights.  Especially if you’ve been on watch for several hours before.  This day we watched the sun rise up behind us with Sully swimming in front and across the small bay a group of local fishermen hauled in their nets.  All the birds rose around the same time and the silence of the night gets interrupted by bird songs.  Not a bad way to turn 27, right John?

At around 6:30 am several girls from the local aquarium showed up and so did George on his skiff.  They opened the gates and Sully raced out.  Instead of heading off towards the open ocean, however, he turned around and waited patiently by the boat until it got going as well.  Even with the 50hp skiff crashing through the ocean swells at full speed, it was no match for the speed at which Sully swam.  They covered 6nm within 40 minutes and sully came happily right back for his breakfast.

TGeorge the whale guy feeding Sully

It seems he’s napping now. Though we’d do the same we’re off to town to do something little Sully will never have to deal with in his life: paper work!