One of the days that we were at Sea World, Charlie surprised me by signing me up for a Beluga Whale interaction program. I have wanted to do this since I was a little girl and first fell in love with Belugas. I have to say it was so AMAZING! I loved every single second I got to interact with those beautiful creatures!
I could inundate you with all the 100+ pictures I have from this experience, but I won't. I will par it down to just these few of my favorite.
The water here was so cold, but as soon as we started interacting with the Belugas we forgot about the cold. The first whale we met was Ferdinand. He weighs 2,500 pounds and is 45 years old. In the wild, the oldest they get to is about 30.
This kiss seemed to go on forever! I have so many pictures of it because he wouldn't stop kissing me. With the other participants, he would kiss really fast and then move back to get his fish from you. I was more than happy to let him keep kissing me!
I kept telling him he was so beautiful and I loved how smooth and soft he was.
Here, the whale was told to flip so that his belly was up. We were supposed to hold the tail and pull him towards us. They do this to help them train for when they must receive injections. Anyway, that whale is very strong and I had to work hard to maintain my footing and make sure he didn't pull me out to the deep part of the tank! As you can imagine, 2,500 pounds can certainly be difficult to pull inward.
Next we met, Alua. She is 32 and only 1,400 pounds.
Saying good-bye!
She got some splashes in before we left the area. We were very wet.
