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More prolific than a meeting with the Buddha and more thrilling than a hike to the top of Mount Everest, this boat of tourists witnessed a planetary, monumental experience unlike any other animal encounter they'd seen before: Wild whale tummy rubs.
Whales are known to be trusting beasts, and despite their enormous size that exceeds the length of many school buses (of course, that's according to the exacting measurements of all of the Animal Planet magazines I had as a kid), whales don't realize how massive they are. They act as if they're lap dogs, begging for treats and affection from the humans around them and forgetting the whaler atrocities of yesteryear like uber-evolved sages of the marine mammal variety.
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Friendly whale showing off its smile
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More than that, this whale proved to this boatload of humans that he was no threat. Gladly floating up to the edge of their tugboat, he rolled in submission and showed his white whale belly, flapping a fin and flashing his baleen smile to the excited people aboard. Despite the dorky fluroescent lifevests and the price-gouged tour guide, these people experienced a wonderful, peaceful moment with a gentle giant that will likely live on forever in their memory cache (and their photo albums) for the rest of their days.
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Unsurprisingly, this whale rocked the internet and made viewers quite jealous. Even though I'm slightly afraid of the open ocean (what sane person wouldn't be), this video makes me want to hop aboard with some random seafaring skipper to set out to find my own version of Moby out there on the wild waves.
Pursuing a wholesome encounter with the world's largest living mammal is not just an achievement, but it's a spiritually affecting experience that could change the way we look at our oceans as a whole. Could this whale be so happy and free if he had plastic wrapped around his blowhole? Probably not.
So the next time you're buying single-use plastics or drinking from a wilted paper straw, think of the whales, the flabberghastingly large doggos of the sea. Perhaps you could be the one scratching his belly next time…
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