The Whale that Couldn’t Breach
A story from Charley Peebler.
Breaching humpback whale
12-year old Charlie graduated from Dora the Explorer to becoming a bona fide member of Heirs to Our Oceans. She gives us a glimpse into one of her study topics, entangled whales, and how privileged she is to have the opportunity to see whales in the wild and learn from experts about the perils whales face.
CHARLEY PEEBLER is one of seventeen kids, ages 10-13, who are members of Heirs to Our Oceans in the San Francisco Bay Area. The non-profit organization’s Mission Statement says, “Heirs to Our Oceans is a rising tide of young leaders around the globe who are taking the ocean crisis into their own hands, educating themselves and others, bringing hope and solutions to the surface, and creating waves of change that will ensure the health of our blue planet for their generation and for future generations.”
They are working on a full-length documentary film to show that human impact on our oceans is going to affect their generation and future generations. In addition, each member takes on one or two study topics of interest, which they pursue with the help of mentors. Charley’s topics are derelict fishing gear and how it affects whales and coral.
Charley was born in the San Francisco Bay area. She’s twelve years old and grew up in San Mateo, California. Her love of the oceans started early. Charley watched “Dora the Explorer” and “Diego and his Adventures” when she was little, and those programs had a lot of marine life in their episodes. When she was five years old, her family went to the California Academy of Sciences and she really loved it. Charley and her sister Dakota are both home-schooled, so they are able to continue to pursue their passion around the oceans and marine life.
Charley first came to Monterey Bay with her family to attend an open house at the Monterey Bay Aquarium. With her family she continued to visit the area for her sister’s birthday, with her cousin, and to stay in a house at the beach.
You can watch Charley’s story on Youtube here: https://youtu.be/2xO7wV9VG_s
THE WHALE THAT COULDN’T BREACH
We were here in Monterey in April 2016. My family had rented a little beach house, and we’d go down to the beach. And my mom said, “Oh my gosh, there’s a whale outside!” So we all ran out down to the beach, and we just started watching the whales. Then we saw a couple breaching! That was really awesome! And that was really memorable to me.
So with Heirs to Our Oceans, I am now working on coral and on derelict fishing gear, and how derelict fishing gear affects whales and whale entanglements. So when I saw those humpback whales from the beach – where the whales were out breaching in the water, pretty close actually – I didn’t think about how entanglements might affect them. Because back then, Heirs to Our Oceans hadn’t started. And so I didn’t really know anything about whale entanglement.
But now I realize that when I saw those whales out there, probably at least one of the whales in the pod had an entanglement on it, which makes me really sad, because that meant it wasn’t able to jump free like the other breaching whales. That’s really horrible that it couldn’t.
Later I was interviewing Justin Viezbicke (NOAA West Coast (CA) Marine Mammal Stranding Coordinator) at the Tiburon Marine Center, and it was really incredible to learn how they disentangle a whale caught in fishing gear. It’s really, really interesting to see the different types of tools, and the ropes, and the buoys, and everything, and how they detach the entangled gear from the whale. That was really interesting to me.
Then just talking with Mr. Viezbicke, one on one, was really amazing! It’s incredible for a child my age to do this. But the only reason it’s incredible is that nobody else ever does it, except for Heirs to Our Oceans. Or the occasional youth that stands up against a problem.
And so, it just makes me realize that I am really lucky to be able to see these beautiful creatures, these whales, and be able to talk intelligently about these issues. And I really want other kids to be able to do that, too.
Thank you for sharing your story with us Charley!
