Whale Slams Snorklers (Ahab You're Next!)

[admin]

From: http://www.wayfaring.info/

This falls under the catagory of "When you see a grizzly cub and his momma, don't touch either one". The victim, whose name I have asterisked (if that's a real word) is a LDS owner in the Salt Lake Valley.

The story is quoted from the local ABC affiliate, Channel 4 TV.


A whale of a tale out of Draper as R******T******, his wife G*** and 16 of their best friends are on a whale-watching expedition off the northern coast of the Dominican Republic.
For a week the group was snorkeling with the North Atlantic Humpback whale. On the last day of the trip the group is back in the water. "We were observing them," said R******T*******. "We had gotten extremely close, closer than we had been all week."
A humpback and her calf are sleeping. Since breathing is a learned activity for young humpbacks, the calf is sleeping on top of the mother. Periodically she rises to the surface so she and her baby can get air. T******** and the group are accidentally pushed by the current on top of the emerging whales.
"It surfaced right underneath us," T****** said, "I kind of put my hands out to keep if from knocking us, and the calf got spooked. It startled the mother and all hell broke loose." Thornton said the massive mammal whipped her tail. "My wife G**** was shot about 20 feet away, the woman on the other side of her was knocked unconscious. It was like a big whirlwind of water and people where scattered all over the place."
T******* said he was also hit. "The mother whale, I think, flipped me with its tail and broke my femur in my leg. At first I thought it was gone because I had no feeling in the leg."
T******* had survived the attack, but he and his group were nine and a half hours away from a hospital. The boat's captain started the long journey to the Dominican Republic. "It was a pretty grueling ride, you can imagine nine and a half hours slamming up and down, laying on a metal deck." He did finally make it to the hospital, then home to Utah. He said once he's fully recovered, it's back in the water with the whales again. "Absolutely! I'd do it again in a heartbeat. It was one of those life-changing things!"

----------------------story ends-------------------------------------------

Additional details. After the 9 to 10 boat ride to land, the Dominican doctor didn't have a general anesthetic. So the doc used a local. The victim got to watch the orthopedic surgery. The doctor also didn't have orthopedic tools so used a regular metal hack saw to repair the femur.

Art

From: http://scubaboard.com/showthread.php?t=181942

[ricki]

Just came across a video clip of the incident and news interview at:

http://abcnews.go.com/Video/playerIndex?id=2941687