whale talker

 Equinox - March 20th, 2013

OK folks, tomorrow is the Vernal Equinox. Spring is officially here - and not determined by human timetables but by the tilt of the earth in relation to the Sun. Once again a major time of celebration for ALL the earth’s people without the prostitution of this day by religious fanatics of any persuasion and pre-dating their dogmas by tens of thousands of years.

And what could be more appropriate to interject at this moment than the recent addition of a bright new soul to our world. Her name is Layla and she is the daughter of my friends - and past students - Melissa and Jesse Conger. Please welcome this child with a deep breath and a warm smile.

 Layla and Melissa

It has been a full and exciting month, albeit without any whales to ID. I have been out six times now and have only one ID to show for it. Nothing serious I’m sure - plenty of sightings south of me but not many here in my grid as of yet.

The Q’s were here for a month but left yesterday and I will sorely miss them indeed. They are great kayak partners, whale spotters and keep a constant stream of fresh baked goodies coming from their kitchen – not to mention their sweet and sincere devotion to me.

The "Q's", circa 2013 - Quentin, Tristan, Antoine, Brigitte, Jean-Luc

I was also treated to a week-long visit with my dear friend Susan Janssen. We were colleagues at the college for years, always good friends and she is a devoted and avid whale spotter. Unfortunately, in the case of both The Q’s and Susan, our searches were for naught this time around.

No whales but I'm on the sea where I belong

Some of you may have been lucky enough to catch a glimpse of Comet PanSTARRS a week or so ago. My camera could not focus properly but here is a pic I got online that is almost exactly as I saw it from my roof. A reminder of the grandeur of the Universe and the ignorance of thinking we are the only inhabited planet. 2000 extra-solar planets have now been identified and new ones discovered faster than we can name them – and Mars has clays containing all the necessary ingredients for life. Right, we are the only inhabited planet – ludicrous!!

Comet PanSTARRS - March 12th, 2013

Perhaps it is now appropriate for me to mention the “moving onward” of a friend - Carrie Hamburg. The comet is just how I see her. “Que les vaya bien, Carrie”, you were a hoot!.

I have a little story to tell about a whale I know, his name is now “Samson”, with the technical designation of HB# 33 10 (thirty third whale identified in 2010).

HB# 32 10 - "Samson"

Samson was adopted recently by the sons of Stephanie Cannaday as a gift from Lorri Badran who attended one of my presentations in Los Barriles. I have a power point show I do about the whale people and a number of my whales have been adopted by the folks who attend. The boys received this photo ID of Samson and his data sheet from 2010. Not more than a week later I was going through my photo files and found that Samson was a badly wounded whale (determined by the flank shots I took) and I wanted Jorge’s (Dr. Jorge Urban Ramirez, UABCS) opinion on the wound. Here is that photo:

Samson, 2010 - Sea of Cortez, cerca Los Barriles

He replied immediately and said that it was definitely a propeller strike from a boat. Upon further examination of his files he said that this whale had been seen before – in Alaska in 2005 and was then already wounded!

Samson, 2005 - North Pacific, cerca SE Alaska

I sent both pictures to Lorri - the family was heart broken that their whale had been hurt so. I felt bad about that and upon searching through my pics yet again, I found that Samson had had a partner with him the day I took the shot. His/her technical designation is HB# 32 10 and here is that whale's photo ID.


Hb# 32 10 - "Urho"

 Much to my surprise and delight HB# 32 10 had not been yet adopted! That is interesting because I had very carefully gone through my old files and was CERTAIN that no other whales could be adopted from 2010 – they were all already taken. How could I have missed HB# 32 10?? Seeing that as an omen I sent the folks HB# 32 10 as a gift with the statement that they could now know that Samson may be wounded, but he is a survivor and has a partner. His partner is now “Urho” – so named by a three year old in their family.

Shortly after this I saw that another (this is happening more and more as the whales become entangled in the increase in fisherman's nets) humpback was recently rescued by a quick response team in California. It had been entangled in a net and would certainly have died had those humans not been willing to put their lives on the line to help a member of “The Whale People”. Warms my heart!!

Another human/whale interaction - RESCUE

These are the kinds of stories I tell in my presentations and in a special talk I gave in Cabo Pulmo on a “Guest Writer’s Night” a week ago regarding my book, THE OTHERS "The Whale People" A Personal Journey of Discovery, Transformation and Healing.

Intimate night in Cabo Pulmo - story telling

I recently watched the movie ‘V for Vendetta” again. There is some gratuitous violence but all in all a movie worth seeing.


Prophetic

And finally a few words of wisdom from two of my favorite people.


Depp/Capt. Sparrow

And for those who are perhaps offended by my occasional tirades against organized religion, here’s something from The Dali Lama that pretty much says it for me.


Simple, direct, no sin, no judgement, no self appointed representatives to The Great Mystery.