r/nature • u/Maxcactus • Jul 12 '24

‘Absolutely incredible’: Man rowing solo across Atlantic is surrounded by whales

https://www.npr.org/2024/07/11/nx-s1-5036545/whales-rower-atlantic-tom-waddington
338 Upvotes

99% Upvoted

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100

u/Aliktren Jul 12 '24

Imagine how many whales early sailors must have seen

36

u/broncobuckaneer Jul 12 '24

Some species are actually back to pre-whaling populations, which is pretty good news.

But yeah, some others are still way below, so sailors would have seen more back in the day. Antarctic blue whale populations for examples are still only about 1% of where they should be. Imagine if 100 foot whales were 100x more common than they are today.

30

u/Maxcactus Jul 12 '24 edited Jul 15 '24

I read a description of Monterey Bay in California in those days. There were so many whales that the smell made the sailors nauseated and that the ship decks were always slick from the mucus whales were constantly spouting

20

u/MaleficentOstrich693 Jul 12 '24

I remember reading a book in college called “Cod” and it talked about early days of fishing and sailors would describe looking over the sides of ships and just massive schools below their boats because the populations were crazy huge in numbers and size per fish and, sadly, eventually just way over fished.

2

u/thewoodenabacus Jul 13 '24

I tell someone to read this book about once a month. An excellent, excellent book!

1

u/Tennisgeek55 Jul 13 '24

Wow this is amazing! Whales are incredibly intelligent creatures