They were a group of right whales. They swam very slowly and closer to the coast than other whales. Their fat bodies were full of blubber, whale bones and balsam oil. They were the favorite prey of many whaling ships. They were once hunted in large numbers by whalers, but now there are not many of them left.
At present, there are no more than 2,000 right whales in the world. Many countries around the world, including my country, regard right whales as protected animals and strictly prohibit their hunting.
If you are not very familiar with the ocean, it is easy to confuse right whales with humpback whales because the two look very similar.
The group of right whales that Xiang Yang saw had spindle-shaped bodies and extremely smooth surfaces. The largest one in the group was nearly twenty meters long and weighed at least one hundred tons. Most of its skin was pitch black, and the skin on its head had grayish-white spots, which looked very rough.
Xu Fang held up the telescope. "It looks like a group of right whales. There aren't many of them. I didn't expect we would have seen one. It's a pity that this kind of whale is not allowed to be caught now. Otherwise, we would have made a fortune on this trip."
"It's a right whale?" Chen Qingsheng was stunned for a moment, then shook his head and said, "There's nothing we can do. As the marine environment continues to deteriorate, the natural mortality rate of right whales is getting higher and higher. Over the years, countries around the world and major animal protection organizations have been working hard to protect them, but the number of these whales has continued to decrease over the years."
"Yes, although right whales cannot be caught in recent years, the overall marine environment has been damaged, food is scarce, and there is an increasing number of natural enemies, making it difficult for right whales to reproduce." Xiang Yang nodded.
In the past, right whales had few natural predators.
Like the humpback whale, the right whale is docile in temperament and basically will not actively attack other marine life, but its size is there after all. Unless it is a stupid fish, it generally will not seek excitement in front of the right whale.
Due to the lack of attacks from natural enemies for many years, the immune system of right whales has greatly degraded. Sometimes, only a small wound can cause a right whale to lose its life.
The name of the right whale comes from the fact that they often appear on the coast where land can be seen, and most of the time, the right whale floats with its back above the water.
As a result, many seagulls regard right whales as isolated islands and like to land on the backs of right whales.
This is nothing in itself. After all, countless seagulls have landed on the backs of right whales from ancient times to the present.
In the past, right whales and seagulls actually got along pretty well, but at some point, a stupid bird pecked a right whale on its back.
Seagulls have the habit of imitating their own kind. When the action of the seagull pecking at the back of the right whale was seen by its fellow seagulls, they all imitated it.
The surface of right whales is smooth, making them very easy to be pecked. And because of their huge size, they won't even feel the slightest peck, so they won't even try to drive away the seagulls.
The consequence of this is that when a right whale emerges from the sea, dozens or even hundreds of seagulls will immediately land on its back and peck at it.
When the bite wound is too large, the right whale cannot rely on its own immune system to recover.
Soon, the fleet approached the right whales.
Now, everyone in the fleet could see clearly that the right whales were extremely large, with their heads exceeding a quarter of their body length, making them look very similar to humpback whales.
"One, two, three. There are three right whales in total. I wonder if there are more under the water." Fang Youqun said after counting.
"I don't think so. Right whales are different from other whales. They don't like to stay on the seabed and often play on the sea surface in bays or around islands." Xiang Yang said.
Those three right whales were not afraid of people at all.
Seeing the fleet surrounding them, they actually slowly shuttled among the fleet, occasionally patting the hull with their small fins that were disproportionate to their body size, causing the crews of each ship to shout at them constantly.
Xiang Yang watched a right whale swimming very slowly to the left of his fishing boat, and said to the crew with a smile: "The right whale is a big, stupid creature in the ocean. It is precisely because of its character that it has been hunted by humans. Compared with hunting other whales, hunting right whales is really too easy."
Chen Qingsheng nodded. "Yes, that's right. If it weren't a protected animal, if you gave me a fishing fork, I would be at least 90% sure that I could keep it."
Xiang Yang smiled but said nothing. In the past, whalers did use harpoons to kill right whales, but it was definitely not as simple as Chen Qingsheng said. After all, even a rabbit will bite when it is cornered, let alone a right whale as big as a house.
Under the boat, the right whale seemed to understand what Chen Qingsheng said. It dived suddenly, raised its tail fin out of the water, and created a huge wave of water that hit the boat.
Suddenly, everyone standing on the side of the boat became soaked.
Fortunately, the jackets Xiang Yang purchased were waterproof and could be used as raincoats. Otherwise, everyone would have been shivering with cold.
Even so, the right whale's behavior angered everyone on the boat.
"Damn it, you dare to splash water on me? Believe it or not, I will kill you soon." Fang Youqun ran to the side of the boat angrily and shouted at the right whale.
Xiang Yang exchanged a glance with several old sailors who had been to Antarctica, including Chen Qingsheng and Xu Fang. They suddenly became playful and a barely perceptible smile flashed across their eyes tacitly. Then they all retreated towards the cabin at the same time.
After each big dive of the right whale, a mist-like water column several meters high will be sprayed out through the whale's hole. When the water column disperses in the air, it is enough to wet the entire deck of the ship.
Sure enough, Xiang Yang and several veteran crew members, as well as several students from the Maritime University who had already thought of this, had just hidden in the cabin when they saw the right whale's tail slapping the water surface. Then its huge head emerged from the sea, and a huge column of water as high as six meters spewed out from the whale's hole.
The water column spread out in the air and covered the surrounding area within dozens of meters. Anyone or anything within this range was sprayed by the sprinkler truck.
"Depend on."
Fang Youqun and others immediately went crazy. Even though they were wearing windbreakers, the spray got their duck down thermal jackets wet.