Curious southern right whale nudges paddleboarder in Argentina

A rare encounter was caught on video at Puerto Madryn, Argentina when a southern rIght whale seemingly plays with a woman on a paddleboard and pushes the board gently forward, observing its movement as it swims directly beneath it.

"They are rare moments, it is something that is prohibited," said Oscar Comes, a local water-sports tourism operator. "It isn't like you can go in a kayak, standup board, a boat, or whatever, to look for the animal."

#southernrightwhale #whale #tourism #argentina

[johnbrown]

He’s the whale’s leading scientist who’s collecting data on a new weird species he just discovered.

[stoufer]

What a beautiful image... Amazing that they had the drone there, and what a calm looking sea..

[JeannieGreer]

Ha, gentle giant gave the paddleboarder a nudge as if it was stuck and needed assistance. It actually waved at her too. That's MAGICAL!!!

[Yidenia]

It's amazing how gentle it is, it has to take a lot of effort to be so gentle when it's that big. It's easy to see that the whale was very conscientious of how easily it could hurt or damage the woman on the paddleboard. What was going through its head? Whatever it was must have been kinder than what goes through the heads of many humans.

[Argumemnon]

That whale knows exactly what it's doing. Such fun creatures.

[PaladinGuy]

The whale: * nudge * "Ha, now that's cute. Welp, time to do whale stuff."

[heatherhancock]

This took my breath away!!! What an absolutely amazing experience...and Frightening. To me it's a life changing experience..it shows we can live together...a gentle Giant and us xx How wonderful to watch..Thank you xx

[theigadwolf]

Whales are the Canadians of the ocean, coming over to say "hello" and being polite.

[iamrocketray]

Amazing Photography, The Whale was so gentle with her!

[melissakitelinger]

That was amazing. It's incredibly beautiful how smart these mammals are. This was one interaction that no one else knows.

[itsawonderfulknife]

As gentle as the whale is, if that was me on the paddleboard, that water would have been a lot more brown.

[alwayzsleepy]

Woahhh looks like someone was having a lucky day!

[angelafernandachristenseng]

Extraordinary! Argentina and Uruguay in the wintertime are like this. You just have to sit and be mesmerized by whales 🐋

[barbarawright]

Oh what a blessing that experience was. Thank you for sharing.

[arpitsharma]

And that's why whales🐳 needs to be protected🛡️.

[carolefearnley]

What an amazing experience, it was so gentle

[marian]

Both scary and magical at the same time. What an incredible experience!

[GenericName]

That's the whale equivalent of booping the snoot.

[Teezythadon]

Whale: Sweet! My new hot wheels boat came in!

[citizenearth]

A magical moment! You lucky (sitting) duck! :D