John Honan from Unalaska, Alaska
This is our newest whale hugger and we would like to thank John for sharing this information and doing his absolute best to help a whale in need.
John Honan from Unalaska, Alaska submitted on Thursday, June 23, 2005 writes, "Hi everyone, I'm new and just wanted to let someone know about this, who may be interested. I know very little about whales. I live in Unalaska, Alaska. We are on island in the Aleutian chain on the Bering Sea side of the Island. Three days ago, at about 9:30 pm on Sunday night June 19, 2005 my wife, Sue Honan and I were about to go to bed and decided to first take a little walk around the house to look at the garden. When we went outside our 8 yr old neighbor, Ian Clark, told us there was a dead whale beached at the 'spit" (one of our harbors about 5 miles from us. I told Sue, I was too tired to see it, but Sue said that she would love to get a picture of it, so I told her that we should make it quick and not stay long. Our neighbors "the Clark's" was also going and offered to let us ride with them. We turned them down so we wouldn't get stuck there if they wanted to stay.
We arrived in about 15 minutes. I was hoping to stay in the car and just look out the window but it was a 10-minute walk up the shore from where we parked. I met a friend who was heading back to his car and asked him how the whale was. He said that it was alive but sick with blood coming from its mouth. When we got there it was lying on its side about in 2 to 3 feet of water arching to get air 15 feet from the shore. There were about fifteen people standing around, some with big cameras. It was still light out and would be till about 1:00 a.m. because of our northerly geographical location. The Orca whale, I was then told was female, 16 to 18 feet long, about 5 feet in diameter and guessing upwards of 3500 pounds. (When the newspaper ran the story the next day it said the whale was a male at 16.5 feet long.)
I saw my friend, Ken Reeves, dragging a couple of logs about 15 feet long and about 5 inches in diameter to the edge of the water then stop and just stare. I went over to him and asked what he was doing. "We got to help it,” he said. I came there wearing tennis shoes, light cotton blue pants, a tee shirt, light wool long sleeve shirt and a windbreaker over that. I was not prepared for the cold Bering Sea water that usually kills you in a matter of minutes. I could not let Ken go by himself. I'm 5'8" tall and weight 180 pounds in a 51-year-old body for what it's worth. So I swallowed one gulp of hesitation and stepped into the sea. It's cold but not unbearable, although I dreaded the thought of a even a 10 minute walk to get to the car and warm up. The whale was much heavier than it looked. It was exciting to touch him. He felt like a big rubber buoy. He was leaning up against a few big rocks so we were going to have to spin him around the other direction and roll him so the blowhole would be above the water line.
I had no idea of all the work that had gone on since it was first discovered by Gene Adams in the late morning. Then it was low tide and the whale was maybe 150 feet from the water on the rocks. Many of the town's people had spent till all day till at least 5 p.m. hauling water to keep the whale wet. They all had worked very hard to keep him alive, as I found out the next day. As it was, I just focused on getting the whale out to sea before the tide retreated.
Different people came in and out as they could stand it to help. A few of the people that helped on and off were, an old guy with a bad leg spent more than a half hour. Ryan Hughs, Belinda Clark, Joe Henning and couple of Joes kids, a couple of girls in their twenties, a couple of fishermen, a boy about 11 with the last name of Adam. When I first got in the water within 10 minutes I had fallen backwards into the sea and got pretty wet, but it was mostly just standing in a depth of about 2 to 3 feet as the swells came in. The logs didn't work to well. I focused on pushing his head back towards the sea. By placing my leg against his jaw I could move his head a few inches then stuff my foot further under push again as Ken and a couple others tried to work together with the logs and hands.
The first 45 minutes produce very little results with usually about five helping at any given time. But until then with very little results and thousands of pounds of whale lying so limp it seemed futile. At one point I thought the whale had died. All motion stopped and the rhythm of the bursts from the blowhole stopped. I try to be a prayer and I saw the need and started to begin to pray quietly to the Lord and talking to the whale saying, "Come on, baby. Help us out here. Come on!" I started slapping it with my hand as some encouragement. There were four times I heard it make it's whale noise. I was right at his head most of the time. The first time was a few minutes after I got more aggressive in praying to God and talking to the whale. What a delightful sound that was!
It was somewhere around then that I noticed a fire had been built on the beach. Knowing it was there encouraged me to hang in there. I learned later, a couple of the 10-year-old kids build it with the help of Monica Henning's matches.
Ken found the right path through all the low places to direct our efforts. Ken came along side me to help push his head. We moved it about 2 feet together. Ken provided lots of determination and muscle. They decided to try and pick up the tale and swing it over the rock as I pushed on the head. That was when we finally had the whale turn completely around and facing the direction to deeper water parallel to the shore. A couple of photographers found about eight feet of rope on the beach and the older guy with the bad leg made a loop. I looped it around the head to help us pick it up a little when we tried to push him forward. That made a big difference. Ryan Hughs held on one side of the loop and I the other. It was slowly moving a foot or two when we waited for a wave to help each time. Ken Reeves took the whole load putting himself in the loop when Ryan went to shore. I continued to by the head pushing and pulling as was possible. The depth was helping we were now at about four feet of water but still parallel to the shore. I remember about then tell Ken that I didn't think I could stay in the water much longer. Shortly after a couple more people came in for a few minutes with only their street clothes to push and the extra help kept me going. The waves began to wash over us with each five or six seconds of all out effort. This was the most dangerous moment I think for me. I was on the ocean side of the whale. My foot slipped between a rock and the whale. The whale began to roll my way. I could not pull my foot out and it felt like my ankle might break. I was falling backwards, hoping the whale would not pin me under with a broken foot. I yelled to Ken and two fishermen on the other side of the whale that my foot was caught.
I don't know how they did it but within seconds my foot was free. We finally got to where we could turn the whale towards the sea. There was another reef further out that could be a problem. The moment I felt the whale begin to lift rise off the sea floor, I pulled my self up on it's back holding on to the fin on it's back. Standing, crouching on her back with both hands on the fin, I just went with the flow as the whale began to swim toward the outer rocks. Now, it was finally getting fun.
I had been in the water in my street clothes for over an hour and now was heading into deeper water. I realized that I had no idea how deep the water was becoming and wasn't sure how well I could swim in all the wet clothes. It wasn't long before I jumped off. My feet touched bottom at about neck level. A fisherman named Josh hanging on to her side and Ken was behind him. I moved toward shore to a more shallow spot so I could tie my tennis shoe. Joe Henning thought I was passing out from being in the water too long and began to yell and run into the water. I told him I was just tying my shoe and he stopped. The captain of the boat the fisherman Josh was on began yelling because Josh and Ken were now with the whale at the final reef. Ken was standing about thigh high in water but Josh was up to his neck in wearing sweats beside the whale. Ken said the whale stopped on the rocks briefly and tilted to one side. Ken from behind the whale turned his tail and I think Josh pushed on his side. The whale straightened up and began to swim away. The fin was straight up and we watch with many cheers as he finally disappeared.
It was now about 11:15 p.m. I slowly climbed out of the water followed by Ken and Josh. My wife Sue, Joanne Chun, Joe and Monica Henning a few of their children, along with the crew from the boat Josh belonged too celebrated with us. The fire felt great. I was soaked and cold. Monica asked me how it felt to be hypothermic. I was cold and shaking but did not feel hypothermic. I knew what that was, because I had been, back in I think 1996 during a rescue in a severe snowstorm and I was sleepy, and couldn't think clearly or recognize my friends. No, I was just cold and wet. Joe Henning lent me his jacket. With that and a four-foot flame, all was well. Back at the car, Ken walked up and made a comment about how incredible the night was saving that killer whale. What? A killer whale? The one with teeth that feed on sea lions? I had pushed my leg against a killer whale jaw for at least an hour! I thought its mouth was full of baleen or something. Visions of the National Geographic show I saw with killer whale riding large waves to the shore and grabbing sea lions off the beach, then flopping backwards into the ocean filled my mind. Well, I glad I didn't realize what I was doing. I got home sometime about 1:00 a.m. After a hot shower was asleep by 2:00 a.m.
Thanks for reading this. What do you think?"
