Saved by a Humpback Whale

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0:56It's September the 14th, 2017. In the South Pacific, just off the coast of the Cook Islands, a shadow lurks beneath the waves. The dark outline of a massive creature.

1:14In the greenish gloom, it's hard to gauge the animal's true size. Parts of its immense body remain shrouded in darkness, while others catch the shafts of sunlight filtering down from the surface. The effect is of something too big to comprehend at a single glance, so unfathomably large it must be taken in piece by piece. The sharp, pectoral fins, the dark, unblinking eyes, the broad sweep of its humped back. The creature moves slowly but deliberately, powering itself through the water with swift, rhythmic swishes of its tail fin. Its attention seems to be fixed on something in the murky distance.

2:02On someone. The question of danger is very real. When I first started working with him underwater, I was pretty scared. you don't realize how big they are until you're right up next to them. 63-year-old Nan Hauser kicks her diving flippers and slowly rotates her arms, treading water. A seasoned marine biologist, Nan has spent countless hours in this ocean, documenting the activity of some of its largest inhabitants. Experience has taught her to be cautious around her subjects. You do have to be really careful, because each one has their own personality. Some will be more curious, and some will be a little more aggressive, especially the juvenile males.

2:54And yet, for all Nan's vigilance, there are still things that can catch her off guard. Things that no amount of training could prepare her for. Floating above a dark abyss, she turns her head to one side, scanning the water. Which is when she sees it. The pale, grey behemoth speeding towards her. This animal came towards me and it was huge. It was this dark figure coming straight at me.

3:35Ever wondered what you would do when disaster strikes? If your life depended on your next decision, could you make the right choice? Welcome to Real Survival Stories. These are the astonishing tales of ordinary people thrown into extraordinary situations. People suddenly forced to fight for their lives. In this episode, we meet marine biologist Nan Hauser. Based in the Cook Islands in the South Pacific, Nan is the president of a research organization devoted to the study and protection of whales. She has dedicated much of her life to these giant mammals, and in the course of her work she often swims alongside them, immersing herself in their world in order to better understand it.

4:19But in September 2017, Nan's research becomes a little too immersive when a 45-ton humpback whale comes hurtling towards her at full tilt. He didn't stop. He just kept coming, and it wasn't like he was coming slowly. He was coming, full speed ahead. I put my hand out to cushion the blow. But instead of a shattering impact, something else happens. Something just as frightening and certainly more mystifying. Nan will find herself being picked up and swept along by the enormous creature, balanced on the tip of its vast jaw. My grandmother was 103 and she always used to say to me, please don't be swallowed by a whale.

5:03And here I am, you know, right on his mouth. All he has to do is open his mouth. But fear will soon turn to curiosity as she begins to wonder what this whale wants with her. The answer to that question will eventually become clear and will be both fascinating and terrifying in equal measure. I'm John Hopkins. From the Noiser Podcast Network, this is Real Survival Stories.

5:48It's September 2017 in the South Pacific. Fanning out beneath a central spine of volcanic peaks, the island of Rarotonga gently unspools through miles of verdant jungle until the land meets the sea. Along the shoreline, white sand beaches yield to impossibly clear water, where threads of sunlight stitch dappled patterns into the floor of the shallow, kilometer-wide lagoon. This is a picture postcard paradise. But beyond its holiday brochure good looks, Rarotonga, and the Cook Islands in general, offer sanctuary to more than just tourists. The cyan waters that surround them are among the most biodiverse on the planet, playing host to a dazzling array of marine life.

6:40All manner of creatures dwell within the bounds of the coral shelves that encircle the islands, while in the deep water beyond the reefs, larger animals move beneath the waves, humpback whales and spinner dolphins, tiger sharks and blacktips. Due to their ecological richness, the Cook Islands are home to numerous environmental charities and NGOs. One such organization is the Center for Cetacean Research and Conservation, which is run by American marine biologist Nan Hauser. Today, on this bright sunny Thursday, the sprightly 63-year-old is making her way along the jetty of Rarotonga's main harbour.

7:20With her tattoos, sun-bleached hair and golden brown tan Nan clearly isn't the kind of scientist who spends her days cooped up in a lab Her line of work demands active research in the field Observing whales and dolphins in the wild She's lived in the Cook Islands for 20 years And while the place has become her home, it's far from her native habitat My family immigrated from Europe and I grew up on a Quaker wildlife preserve on the top of a mountain in Pennsylvania. I spent, luckily and very happily, my childhood in nature rehabilitating animals and loving every minute of it. Though she grew up around animals, it was the more elusive creatures that fascinated Nan, those whose lives played out beneath the waves, mysterious and rarely glimpsed.

8:14On childhood holidays to Bermuda, she became enchanted by the huge, gentle mammals that occasionally surfaced beyond the reef. Clouds of water vapor erupting from their blowholes. Ever since I could walk, I would watch the whales blow off the reef and see them out there. And I was so fascinated by whales. And they also had dolphins around that I fell in love with. And it's funny, I was so curious about it that I wanted to know what they did when you didn't see them. What were they doing underwater? And that drove me into this curiosity that I had all my life. And yet, for many years, Nan's interest in whales and dolphins would remain just that, a curiosity.

9:02She pursued other opportunities, first getting a degree in nursing and becoming a midwife, then retraining as a therapist before later joining the U.S. Coast Guard. During this time, Nan got married, moved to Maine in the Northeastern US and raised a family.

9:21But throughout all these career changes and life milestones, one thing never wavered. Her fascination with marine mammals. Eventually the time came to turn passion into vocation. After I had had three children, I said, you know, I really want to live out my dream. I'm going to study whales and dolphins underwater and see what they're doing. Soon, that dream was her reality. Nan took a grassroots, hands-on approach to conservation. Though she now holds a PhD in marine biology, the early days were largely self-taught. Late nights with textbooks spread open on the kitchen table, absorbing all there was to know about whales.

10:08But her education wasn't limited to books. I bought an underwater digital video camera and started filming myself and then seeing things that no one else had ever seen before and everyone kept saying, write it up, write it up, you know, this is science. Write a paper, keep track of everything. and my curiosity just kept getting stronger and more intense. And so even though I had children and I was a little tired of academia, I just dove right back into it and I'm still doing it since. Nan is interested in all aspects of Wales' lives. But one area intrigues her more than any other. Behaviour is what fascinated me the most.

10:55And although I study genetics and acoustics and population identity and abundance and so many other things, migratory pathways, I study all that. It's the behavior that really fascinates me. Whales are known to exhibit complex social behaviors, capable of forming close-knit friendships, hunting in cooperative family units, and even communicating through song. They're among the most intelligent animals on the planet. But over the course of the past century, their numbers have been falling dramatically. The result of overfishing, polluted oceans, and climate change. Whale conservation has traditionally been a well-supported cause.

11:39It's relatively easy to make people care about these amazing creatures, with their large brains, gentle natures, and human-like traits. Nan supports the work of organizations like Greenpeace and Save the Whales, but when she started her career in conservation, she didn't see herself as another activist. She wanted to provide the scientific fact that underpins the activism. And to do that, she needed to get organized. I realized that by having a research organization and a conservation organization, that it was more than standing up and down screaming and shouting, which there's a place, definitely.

12:23for activism. I'm all for it, but I wanted to get the evidence. I wanted to get the scientific data to show why we needed to protect whales. In the 1990s, Nan founded the Centre for Cetacean Research and Conservation, an organization devoted to advancing our understanding of whales and promoting the importance of their protection. She based her operation in the Cook Islands after hearing reports of a local population of humpbacks that no scientists were monitoring. She moved to the South Pacific with her three young children in tow and started building a life there. 20 years on, Nan has become a fixture of the community.

13:09During whale season, she can regularly be seen out beyond the harbour with her team of research assistants, diligently tracking and documenting. She's even earned herself an affectionate local nickname, the Whale Witch.

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15:52Today Nan is meeting up with a documentary crew from the Netherlands who are hoping to capture some footage of humpbacks in the wild This is all in a day's work for Nan The CCRC is non-profit so the research depends on the donations of benefactors Appearing in nature documentaries is one way to raise awareness for the cause. At the end of the jetty, the director and his crew are loading up a boat with camera gear. Nan links up with them, and moments later she guides their boat out beyond the reef. They spend a productive afternoon following a pod of humpbacks, and manage to capture some decent footage.

16:33Mission accomplished. But towards the end of the day, just when they're getting ready to return to land, the director makes a request. The director said, I think we really need more footage of you underwater with the whales. And I said, OK, no problem. And I could see a couple of whales in the distance and they were close to the reef. and so we went over and I slid in. I had my GoPro, I had on a wet skin and went over the side. Nan takes a deep breath through her snorkel and drops below the surface. She takes a moment to orient herself, letting her vision adjust to the watery gloom beyond her mask.

17:19She scours the depths for the whales, her eyes roving back and forth across the hazy emptiness. And then suddenly, there they are. It's a sight that never gets old. Two humpbacks materialize from the ocean's blue fathoms like figures in a dream. As they loom into focus, Nan takes in their incredible size. Their wide, fan-shaped tails, the deep grooves that run along their pale throats, the distinctive geometry of their immense, curved backs. Despite their vastness, they move serenely. And yet, Nan doesn't let her guard down. Years of experience have made her feel comfortable around whales, but that doesn't mean she takes her safety for granted.

18:08The question of danger is very real. When I first started working with them underwater, I was pretty scared. You don't realize how big they are until you're right up next to them. And they can take their tail fluke or peck fin or their body to smack you and you'd be dead. Your bones would be broken and your organs would rupture or you would just drown. On one occasion, while filming two female humpbacks, Nan was charged from behind by a juvenile male. It's a miracle she wasn't crushed to death. Near misses like this are a reminder that no matter how intelligent they are, no matter how sophisticated, whales are still wild animals, unpredictable and exceptionally powerful.

18:58You do have to be really careful because each one has their own personality. And some will be a little more aggressive, especially the juvenile males. Some will be more curious and some will be more allowing. But again, I let them come to me, and I don't go to them. With her GoPro camera strapped to her head, Nan watches the whales from a safe distance, taking breaths at the surface when she can, recording the footage the director asks for. And that's when one of them, a male by the gargantuan size of him, makes a sudden, unexpected movement. He lifts his head, and with a downward pulse of his enormous tail fluke, begins advancing towards Nan.

19:46At first, she just watches, waiting for the animal to stop or turn. But he didn't stop. He just kept coming, and it wasn't like he was coming slowly. He was coming, full speed ahead. I put my hand out to cushion the blow. Nan's hand meets the tip of an elongated, snout-like jaw. She absorbs the force of the whale's momentum. But instead of being knocked aside, as expected, she feels herself being swept up as the animal keeps swimming forward, pushing Nan through the water like a piece of debris shoved along by a bulldozer. He immediately just kept pushing me and then put his head underneath me, and I was sitting on top of his head.

20:33Sharp barnacles slice into Nan's skin, and her body is rattled. She's blindsided, but also captivated. She's never experienced this kind of sustained physical contact with a whale before. She can see up close the color variations of his skin. Feel its leathery toughness. Note the distinctive white scar that marks the top of his head. As a marine biologist, it's awe-inspiring. As a human being, it's completely terrifying. Then he flipped over and I rolled on his head and I was sitting on his throat. The whale speeds along on his back with his human cargo now pressed against the curve of his pale, grooved throat.

21:22Nan is dizzy with shock. She has studied humpbacks in minute detail. Their feeding habits, their anatomy, their population numbers. But flattened against this creature's throat, as he hurtles through the water, one thing is abundantly clear. Nothing in her 30 years of research has prepared her for this. For now, there is one saving grace. Fortunately, the whale is swimming close to the surface, allowing Nan to occasionally suck air through her snorkel. But he could still dive at any moment and take Nan down with him. And that's not the only horrifying possibility. It wouldn't let me go. My grandmother was 103 and she always used to say to me, please don't be swallowed by a whale.

22:11And here I am, you know, right on his mouth. All he has to do is open his mouth. Despite the adrenaline, Nan manages to remain relatively composed. Decades in wildlife conservation have taught her never to lose her cool, even in situations where her life is on the line. Moreover, the dangerous nature of her work means she's had to accept the high chance of a fatal incident. I always had this feeling that I was going to die with a whale, and I thought that that was probably the day that I was going to die. But I didn't panic. I grew up with so many animals that I know don't panic around any kind of animal.

22:49But that doesn't stop her pulse from racing. Right now, as she is helplessly borne along on this underwater giant, gasping for air when she can, A bad outcome seems far likelier than a good one. My heart was pounding, and I just thought that, yeah, he's just going to tuck me under his pectoral fin and take me down into the deep. And I had a mask and snorkel on, or he's going to hit me. I didn't really know what he was doing. If these are to be her final moments, it seems both fitting and ironic that she should spend them like this, at the mercy of the animal she has spent so much of her life protecting.

23:29but just as nan begins to resign herself to be inevitable something else kicks in i started thinking about my grandchildren and i really want to be here with my grandchildren i mean there's so much going on in your head your adrenaline is flowing your heart is pounding so hard and being a scientist i was so curious about what is this animal doing and why is he doing it your thought of reality are coming in and out, but I really did, it did occur to me that, wait, I don't want to be killed today. I have a lot more time to be a voice for these animals and be with my grandchildren.

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26:13It's the afternoon of September the 14th, 2017, in the ocean of the Cook Islands. Bathed in brilliant sunshine, a documentary crew crowds the side of a boat, fretfully scanning the choppy blue water that surrounds them. Moments ago they lost sight of their resident whale expert, Nan Hauser, as she was seemingly picked up by a humpback and carried off into the depths. The anxiety around the boat underscores a grim, unspoken knowledge. That if Nan has run into an aggressive male, it's highly unlikely she'll come out of this encounter alive. And meanwhile, a few hundred meters away from the boat, several feet beneath the surface, Nan is still alive, trying desperately to establish some distance between herself and her 45-ton assailant.

27:05Seeing an opportunity, she pushes off from his body, trying not to kick him in the process. The last thing she wants to do is startle the animal. I didn't want to kick him. So I just kept pushing myself away, but he really maneuvered beautifully to keep me on him or right next to him. Try as she might, Nan can't escape the whale's vast orbit. He seems determined to stick on her, shifting his body to keep her by his side. The animal flips around, deftly repositioning Nan on his head. it just continued on and on i slid down his back he kept trying to put me under his pectoral fin and his pectoral fin is huge you know they have the longest pectoral fins of any whale they're about a third the size of the body so if the pectoral fin is 15 feet long and very wide and very thick he can get me under his pectoral fin and that's what they do to seals they hide them under the peck fin.