Imagine being so well-liked by a whale that it literally bodyguards you from a shark attack. That’s exactly what happened to marine biologist Nan Hauser! While swimming in the South Pacific, a 46-foot humpback whale decided she needed a personal security detail and shielded her from a 15-foot tiger shark. Talk about VIP treatment!
Nan, who has dedicated her life to studying whales, is based in Rarotonga, Cook Islands, where she leads the Cook Islands Whale Research Project and runs the Cook Islands Whale & Wildlife Centre. Clearly, the whales appreciate her work—so much so that they’re willing to play bodyguard!
She has dedicated her life to understanding and protecting whales, and it seems the whales know it! Her research covers everything from identifying individual whales through photos to studying their voices, genetics, behavior, and epic migrations across the ocean. Through satellite tagging, she’s even uncovered how these gentle giants travel vast distances with remarkable precision.
Based in the beautiful Cook Islands, Nan carries out her research in the heart of the South Pacific. It was here, in the waters she calls home, that she experienced an extraordinary act of kindness—when a humpback whale stepped (or rather, swam) in to protect her. A true reminder of the deep, mysterious bond between humans and animals!
Saved by a Gentle Whales from Shark?
In September, Nan Hauser had an encounter with a humpback whale unlike anything she had ever experienced. A massive, nearly 50,000-pound humpback approached her in the waters off the Cook Islands and began lifting her out of the ocean with its enormous head.
For a tense 10 minutes, she remained calm as the whale persistently nudged her with its head, bumped her with its belly, and even swiped at her with its powerful pectoral fins.
“I’ve spent 28 years underwater with whales and have never had a whale so tactile and so insistent on putting me on his head, or belly, or back, or, most of all, trying to tuck me under his huge pectoral fin,” Hauser shared, as president of the Cook Islands-based Center for Cetacean Research and Conservation.
Would you let a humpback whale rough you up if it meant saving your life? Incredibly, Hauser and her team captured the entire encounter on camera, footage she shared publicly for the first time on January 8. She now believes the whale wasn’t being aggressive, but was actually protecting her—from an even deadlier threat: a shark.
This kind of heroic behavior isn’t unheard of among humpbacks. Their so-called “altruism” has been well-documented, with one remarkable example occurring in 2009. Marine biologist Robert Pitman photographed a humpback cradling a Weddell seal to its chest while rolling out of the water, shielding it from a group of hungry killer whales. It seems humpbacks have a habit of playing guardian angel in the ocean!
Humpbacks may be the ocean’s ultimate bodyguards—whether their clients are baby whales, seals, or even unsuspecting humans. According to Pitman, their protective instincts likely stem from their drive to defend their calves from predators. Since these massive whales don’t have much to fear from orcas, stepping in (or rather, swimming in) to pick a fight on behalf of their young seems like a worthy cause.
Their heroic streak was on display again in May 2017, when a squad of humpback vigilantes interrupted a pod of killer whales that were stalking baby gray whales off Monterey Bay, California. Clearly, if there were an oceanic superhero league, humpbacks would be founding members.
Are Whales the super hero of the ocean?
Hauser believes her own unexpected bodyguard was simply doing what humpbacks do best—playing protector. She later learned that while one whale was busy head-butting her onto safety, another was aggressively swatting at the tiger shark nearby, as if saying, “Not on my watch!”
This, however, is the first recorded case of a humpback stepping in to save a human from a shark, Hauser noted. Instead of just swimming by, the whale made a beeline for her and didn’t stop until she was perched safely on his head. For the next 10 minutes, she found herself being rolled around his body, as he persistently tried to tuck her under his pectoral fin—like a giant, blubbery babysitter with a serious protective streak.
“Well, I was very intently watching the whale the whole time because I was trying to get away. I did think I was probably going to die.”
“It’s highly unusual. I’ve been underwater with whales for 28 years, and this is just really unusual behavior. It’s crazy. Humpback whales are not typically dangerous animals, but any animal that big could unintentionally harm a human. I was afraid for my safety the whole time. And I’m not afraid of whales at all. I’m afraid of little spiders. But whales I can deal with.”
“I mean, he’s big, and so I was pretty bruised up. He wasn’t trying to hurt me. He could have. He could have whacked me with his pectoral fin or his tail. I’d be dead. I mean, he was really pushing me with the front of his mouth, too. He could’ve opened his mouth, and he didn’t do that, either. But I didn’t know he wasn’t going to do any of that.”
“When I did finally get closer to the boat and a little bit away from him, I looked off in the distance, and I saw another whale who was quite frantically tail slapping this other animal, which I thought was another whale.”
“I looked at it, and then I saw it swimming towards me. But it was – the tail fin was going side to side instead of up and down. So my mind quickly went, oh, my gosh. That is a shark. A shark’s tail goes back and forth. A whale’s tail goes up and down.”
“Well, the only thing I could figure is that everything I’ve read about what they do with altruistic behavior to protect other mammals – marine mammals. And I’ve even seen them protect a little hammerhead shark before. They protect other animals in the sea from harm. I’ve just never heard of it happening with a human.”
“As a scientist, you are trained to be a skeptic. How likely is it that we are just trying to impose an anthropomorphic storyline on animal behavior that is not actually anything like whale saves a diver from a shark. If someone told me this story, I wouldn’t believe it. If it hadn’t been me, if it hadn’t been filmed in three different angles, I wouldn’t believe it. I tried a lot not to anthropomorphize any of the behavior that I see. It’s easy to do, but it’s not a good practice in science.”
“What wasn’t written up – and this is even weirder – is that four days later, the other whale that was tail slapping came to the boat and kept spy-hopping and looking in the boat. So I got in the water, and I rolled the camera. And she came right up underneath me 4 or 5 feet away from my belly, and she put her pectoral fins out around me. And it was my birthday, and I got a hug. And you tell me any scientist that will tell you that a whale hugged them. That’s impossible. But again – three angles, three different cameras, and I got a whale hug. So I don’t even tell people that because they’ll think I’m crazy.”
“I have certainly never been hugged by a whale in the 28 years that I have studied them. This is a basic outline of the story… there is so much more I could write about this encounter. I am truly deeply blessed and it has changed my life in so many ways. I always said that I would spend my life being a voice for whales, dolphins and the ocean and now that commitment has become even stronger!”