A whale of a tale out of Draper as Randall Thornton, his wife Gwen and 16 of their best friends are on a whale-watching expedition off the northern coast of the Dominican Republic.
For a week the group was snorkeling with the North Atlantic Humpback whale. On the last day of the trip the group is back in the water. “We were observing them,” said Randall Thornton. “We had gotten extremely close, closer than we had been all week.”
A humpback and her calf are sleeping. Since breathing is a learned activity for young humpbacks, the calf is sleeping on top of the mother. Periodically she rises to the surface so she and her baby can get air. Thornton and the group are accidentally pushed by the current on top of the emerging whales.
“It surfaced right underneath us,” Thornton said, “I kind of put my hands out to keep if from knocking us, and the calf got spooked. It startled the mother and all hell broke loose.” Thornton said the massive mammal whipped her tail. “My wife Gwen was shot about 20 feet away, the woman on the other side of her was knocked unconscious. It was like a big whirlwind of water and people where scattered all over the place.”
Thornton said he was also hit. “The mother whale, I think, flipped me with its tail and broke my femur in my leg. At first I thought it was gone because I had no feeling in the leg.”
Thornton had survived the attack, but he and his group were nine and a half hours away from a hospital. The boat’s captain started the long journey to the Dominican Republic. “It was a pretty grueling ride, you can imagine nine and a half hours slamming up and down, laying on a medal deck.”
He did finally make it to the hospital, then home to Utah. He said once he’s fully recovered, it’s back in the water with the whales again. “Absolutely! I’d do it again in a heartbeat. It was one of those life-changing things!”
Oh you ass didn’t wanna listen, I bet you will next time. I just thought this story was funny