Say What? Sei Whale!
A story from Harry “Tinker” Neece.
Tinker is a boat captain for fishing trips and whale watch adventures with Chris’ Fishing and Whale Watching. His tale combines both! Whatever was that whale doing that woke passengers from sleep before dawn? Tinker’s simple style has us right there in awe of another whale encounter.
CAPTAIN HARRY “TINKER” NEECE is the operator of the vessel Check Mate for Chris’ Fishing and Whale Watching. Tinker, as he’s known around the wharf by his childhood nickname, was born in Salinas, CA, but grew up in Seaside, CA. His father was a deckhand, cleaning and maintaining boats in the Monterey Harbor. His deckhand duties also involved cleaning fish for charter fishing passengers. Tinker assisted his dad cleaning fish at an early age. He’s been a boat Captain for 43 years. Tinker splits his time 50-50 running fishing trips and whale watch trips. Sometimes the two overlap.
You can watch Tinker’s story on Youtube here: https://youtu.be/po18rTWzVAg
SAY WHAT? SEI WHALE!
Memorable wildlife Encounters. Well, the one we’re in reference to is the one with the sei whale, twenty five miles SW of Pt. Pinos on our way to Monterey Canyon. After a good hour, hour and 45 minutes of traveling, it began to be daylight and I spotted a blow about our 2 o’clock position, 3 o’clock position, out to the west, traveling and I had no concern about it. I mean, I knew there was a whale with plenty of time to pass. But low and behold, less than five minutes later, I see an object in the water that’s surfacing towards my boat, and it continued to surface under me until there was an encounter, a bump against the boat, a good little nudge which actually woke, shakened up quite a few people which were half asleep and said, “what was that, what was that?”
I looked out the opposite side of the boat and the whale just sort of continued on its way. Well, that’s fairly unique. I never experienced anything [like that]. It was quite exhilarating! You know, because the fact is we just got hit by a whale! Did we hit a whale or did he hit us? O was concerned, but it didn’t appear that anything was hurt, or damaged, and that whale made the trip successful that day.
The following day, about the same exact coordinates, crew members are hollering, “Hey, there’s a whale back here!” ‘There’s a whale back here!” I looked back towards the transom[1]. We’re under way, cruising about twelve knots. We’re not going full speed. Just cruising out. There’s a whale making passes, porpoising back and forth across the stern of the boat and I look back. After being reported to me, I saw the whale make three passes behind the boat, from the left to the right. Port to starboard. Ok. Well. Things quieted down. He left.
We’re in the same location, so I assume that it was the same whale. That’s an assumption. I don’t know if it was. About a minute later, he’s porpoising broadside on the port side, at 9 o’clock, porpoising! As if he were a dolphin right next to the boat, a 45’ whale porpoising, less than 10’ away! Less than 10’ away! It was exciting. Traveling. He was racing us is what he was doing. It was pretty, you know, what can we do with this whale? Is he mad at us from yesterday? Or is he playing with us? We don’t have a clue! Actually, we think he was playing with us.
Post Interview follow up about the whale:
It was a sei whale. Beautiful animal. Beautiful animal. It was a very slender whale. Very contrasty head. It’s hard to explain. Dark color edging on the back, around the top of the head. One time in my lifetime that it happened. Whether it will happen again, remains to be seen.
Thank you for sharing your story with us Tinker!
[1] The stern or back of a vessel
