TAIPEI (Taiwan News) -- Video has surfaced over the weekend of a pilot whale fascinating and terrifying tourists as it swims dangerously close to a rocky shore.
At around 8 a.m. on Saturday (Aug. 3), Tseng Shih-cheng (曾世誠), a tour guide in Hualien, released a video showing over a hundred tourists watching a pilot whale in horror as it swam dangerously close to the shore at the Sanxiantai Recreation Area in Taitung County. Many female tourists at the scene could be heard repeatedly screaming, "Don't come back again, don't come back again, don't come back again!"
On Sunday (Aug. 4), Taiwan Cetacean Society member Yu Hsin-i (余欣怡) commented on Tseng's video expressing concern about the well-being of the whale. Tseng responded by saying that the video had been shot on July 29 and that the whale returned to the ocean later that day.
(Photo from Facebook group 花蓮包車曾世誠)
Yu responded by saying, "I hope that the pilot whale in the video is safe and sound. We were also informed by the Coast Guard that it had safely returned to the sea. Thank you for posting this video." In the video, hordes of tourists can be seen standing at the edge of the shore watching, videotaping, and screaming as the whale as circles ever closer to the gravel beach.
The man behind the video camera can be heard saying, "Wow ... So many people are watching, and the whale comes back again. It wants to play with everyone. Wow ... Bye-bye whale!" However, when the whale approached the shore, some female tourists were worried that the whale was really stranded.
They shouted nervously three times, "Don't come back again, don't come back again, don't come back again." After swimming in circles a few times, the pilot whale finally swam away and disappeared in the deep sea.
(Photo from Facebook group 花蓮包車曾世誠)
A fisherman surnamed Chen (陳), who is a resident of Taitung's Chenggong Township, told UDN that it was common for whales to swim near fishing boats in waters off the coast. However, he said he had never seen one swim so close to the shore before.
Chen theorized that the whale was curious about the people on the beach. He said that in his many years living in the area, he had never seen this kind of behavior before.
