Aspiring Model

Near the end of our trip when we were at Cannon Beach, we saw on the news that a humpback whale had washed ashore (not beached, it had died at sea and came in with the tide) on Long Beach on the southwest Washington coast. As luck would have it we had planned to be in that area the next day so our plans changed a bit and we went to Visit The Whale.

It was quite the experience. From a biologist point of view it was fascinating (and revolting) and if I was a social scientist I would have had a field day. So many people visited the whale, mostly to poke and prod and get their "Trophy" photo taken. I spent a lot of time photographing this behavior and I'm in the process of writing a photo essay about the experience.

This mother had a brood of 5 or 6 kids and photographed them against this dead whale (a female) like they were at Disneyworld or for some fashion spread. It was really odd to watch, especially as she was intruding a bit on a couple researchers taking measurements (see their preliminary report HERE).

In all, a fascinating experience. The whale, by visual clues, appeared to be fairly old so perhaps died of old age. It was 50 ft long, at the very upper end lengthwise for humpback whales - females are larger than males, by the way. You can also see some more of my photos of the researchers HERE. Check my features page on my website for the photo essay in a couple weeks or so, or let me know if you would like to be notified when it's done.