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View Full Version : Whale versus Bayliner - Guess Which Won?



MagicMtnDan
02-03-2006, 09:01 AM
SANTA BARBARA, Calif. - A large gray whale charged a 27-foot boat on a sightseeing cruise off Santa Barbara, totaling the vessel and sending a passenger to the hospital. Images
The Bayliner was cruising off Leadbetter Beach Wednesday evening when the whale came up from under its right bow, belly-flopped onto the ship, and crushed its cabin.
The boat's owner, Jerry Gormley, had taken his friends Bob and Vicki Thornburgh onto the water to watch the sunset.
Gormley says the whale emerged from the water again and ran its tail along the boat's flank, knocking over Bob Thornburgh and tearing down the vessel's railing.
The whale then approached the boat a third time. Gormley estimates the animal as being about 30 feet long.
"The whale came up here, on top of the cabin, breaking the glass and everything," said Santa Barbara Harbor Patrol spokesman Larry Nufer. "There's a fiberglass section -- it's broken off. Then, as the boat was still moving ahead, it looked like the tail would come back here, and then it dove back down ... and the passenger in the back here got hit by the tail."
Bob Thornburgh was briefly treated for cracked ribs at Santa Barbara Cottage Hospital. His wife said it seemed like the whale had consciously collided with the boat.
But Wayne Perryman, a researcher with the National Marine Fisheries Service in San Diego, said the boaters probably encountered a gray whale, which are common in waters off Southern California this time of year, and rarely show aggressive behavior.

Chubby4Life
02-03-2006, 09:18 AM
SANTA BARBARA, Calif. - A large gray whale charged a 27-foot boat on a sightseeing cruise off Santa Barbara, totaling the vessel and sending a passenger to the hospital. Images
Are there images with this?

spectras only
02-03-2006, 11:07 AM
And the Bayliner jokes starting to happen :rollside:

Sleek-Jet
02-03-2006, 11:07 AM
... I guess whales don't like tan gellcoat either... :D :D :D