Around this time of year, most Americans and Canadians are returning back from their vacations, where they’ve been drinking Piña Coladas on the beach to escape the cold weather. Whale watching and snorkeling are common activities in this area of the world, and tourist companies have been successfully running these trips for years. But on Wednesday, a tragic accident unfolded that could have happened to any of the thousands that travel to Mexico annually – a gray whale crashed into the side of a snorkeling boat and killed a Canadian woman and injured two other people.
The Attorney General’s Office for Environmental Protection stated that the 25-foot boat, carrying nine tourists, was coming back and near to the shore when a gray whale rammed into its side. The crash knocked the woman off the boat and into the water. A crewmember and passenger quickly responded, lifting her back into the boat. However, she died in a clinic during treatment shortly after returning. The cause of death has been announced as head trauma.
The AP Reported John Babcock, a spokesman for Canada’s Foreign Affairs Department, said that “to protect the private and personal information of the individual concerned, further details on this case cannot be released.”
Accidents like these are exceedingly rare, however, not completely unheard of. In fact, in January of this year, a female humpback whale rammed into a whale-watching boat off the coast of Maui, Hawaii. The video can be found here. Fortunately, for the tourists, it simply turned into an exciting memory, but it also showed that these whales have the potential to cause more devastating effects.
Furthermore, this year there was a high presence of whales and the Office for Environmental Protection advised boat companies to keep their boats under a 15-knot speed limit. While this boat was operating under said restrictions, and in an appropriate area, questions are arising about the general safety of this type of tourism.
A gray whale can reach a length of 49 feet and way up to 40 tons. They are not, so to speak, animals to be messed with. Further, although a gray whale can stay under water for extended periods of time, it does come to the surface to breathe. And, in the winter, they come to the Baja coast to breed. Perhaps a tragic accident like this one will encourage tour companies and tourists alike to take extra precautions in the future.
