This woman was saved by a whale she didn’t know, but my dogs run and hide at the first site of trouble.
Nan Hauser is a whale biologist and the President of the Center for Cetacean Research and Conservation. In other words, she really loves whales. She has dedicated her life to studying and saving these giant animals near her home base in the Cook Islands.
Humpback whales can reach nearly 50 feet long and eat 1.5 tons of food each day.
Which made it even more terrifying when she thought one was turning on her. A 50,000 lbs. humpback whale became quite aggressive with her while she was in the water. He used his massive size to push her around. She tried to get away from him, but he refused to leave her side.
“He put his eye right up to my eye,” Nan said of the ordeal. “He didn’t want to hurt me.”
The thing is, this whale knew something that Nan didn’t. Nearby was a big tiger shark. She only realized the shark was there after the whale used his fin to hold her out of the water. He wasn’t attacking her at all. He was acting like her bodyguard, guiding her safely back to the boat.
According to Nan, there are many accounts of humpback whales hiding seals under their fins to protect them from killer whales. But she had never heard of them doing the same for a human.
Check out The Dodo’s interview with Nan and some of the raw footage of the encounter below
