A Whale of a Tragedy

Today was a shocking and tragic Sunday for the kids and me (my husband was not with us). Our usual routine of church was followed by a trip across Lake Washington to the West Seattle Ferry terminal. The draw of the Puget Sound is strong for us as we enjoy the intricacies of Northwest costal life.

When we got to the ferry the workers immediately told us about a sad event.

A whale had died nearby.

The kids and I quickly got out of our car and ran to the rail of the ferry terminal bridge. It was there where our hearts sank deep - deeper than the deepest parts of the Sound. My son said with vigor, “It’s a real whale, Mom.” Looking out, we saw a beautiful humpback whale that was beached on the shore, dead.

We had seen a dead grey whale in the middle of the Sound on a ferry trip in May. It seemed unbelievable to all of us that another whale would die in almost the same place. In my lifetime I had never seen a dead whale in the Sound and to see two in three months seemed impossible.

Initially, I thought this whale seemed smaller than I would expect for a full-grown humpback. A biologist came by and said that this whale was only about one to two years old. She called it a juvenile whale. It’s beautiful mouth and body with white flippers and black fin shone in the overcast sun.

Later, I learned that before we came to the ferry dock people had seen him stranded, struggling, and later beached. They covered the whale with wet blankets and poured water on it. They tried to get it free into deeper waters, but to no avail.

Fortunately, this particular type of whale is not an endangered species as there are at least 80,000 living in our world. For that we are thankful. Yet, there is no question that my kids and I would have been in the water pouring water on the humpback and trying to lead him to deeper waters had we found it struggling.

The plight of nature is hard and sometimes makes us sad. We fight to make a raw, pure, and clean environment in a world of toxins, waste, and plastic refuse in our waters. We fight for this because we are so grateful for our mutual life together with nature here on earth. 

To say the least, my kids and I looked out at that humpback whale with true ambition for the Puget Sound to flourish and not perish like this beautiful one!