Our Adopted Gracie
As a child I had more types of
pets than most; parakeet, canaries,
hamsters, a spider monkey, and, of course, dogs and cats. We also had fish, but those experiences were
not pleasant. The goldfish won at carnival bingo always went “belly-up” within a week, and our
try at an aquarium started with guppies ; dwindled to one angelfish who savored
a diet of guppies; and came to an untimely end to when “ick” disease struck,
ending all life in the tank , which My Mother promptly turned into a terrarium.
There is, however, one marine
experience that sticks in my memory. Exceptionally
so. As young Peace Corps volunteers stationed on the Oregon coast, my pal Mark and I would often hitch a ride on area
fishing boats as weekend pastime. It was
the “Hippy” 60’s” and Mark had one of those Tibetan prayer bowls which “sang” a
clear and piercing tone when their edge
was rubbed with a wooden dowel. He would bring it along when we sailed, playing
it as a diversion.
We began to notice that California Gray whales would come nearby
whenever he stroked the bowl. We deduced
the bowl’s sounds were similar to their own “sounding.” One female became recognizable because she had
a calf . We saw these two often enough we started calling the calf “Gracie. “Mom”
would scrape her back swimming under the boat keel to remove barnacles. Scary as it could tip the boat over, but she
was never aggressive enough to really cause harm.
Mark and I actually looked
forward to seeing Gracie as the two would come to the boat every time Mark
played his bowl. We looked upon the two
as our adopted whale “pets.” One day
when we were out, Gracie came by the boat . She was alone. We guessed that Mom had a unpleasant
experience with Orcas, as she would
never leave her calf unless something catastrophic occurred. We were pleased to see Gracie several more
times. As a solo calf she was very susceptible to predation . But she returned
whenever the bowl “called” to her. We looked forward to our weekend “visits”
Then, our duty tour was over and
we had to leave Gracie for our own futures.
I often wondered if she survived. 30 years later, Mark was living in
Northern California and, prior to a trip to see him, I suggested that we
revisit our old Oregonian stomping grounds.
He agreed. We had a little Miata sports car zipping up the Oregon coast
when we came to Newport, the town where the fishing boats we used to hitch
rides on were docked. “Should we try to go out again?” We were both enthusiastic in our affirmation. Mark had actually thought about this in
advance and surprised me , bringing along his Tibetan bowl as a nod to
nostalgia. We were successful in
cajoling a boat captain into letting us ride along. About 5 miles out , Mark
took out his bowl and started sounding.
In about a half hour we saw a pod of California Gray’s breaching about a
quarter mile away. They showed no interest in us. These whales commonly migrate from Alaska
down to San Diego and they are pretty goal-oriented, so we expected they were
on their own mission.
Suddenly, next to the boat there was a solitary
Gray. She kept pace with us much like a
porpoise in a playful jaunt. We were ecstatic. This whale was obviously enjoying our
company. Could it possibly be?... We
knew in our hearts it could simply be one of the cadre of whales that do not
migrate, but stay in the area year around.
They are small in number as the ecology won’t support more. But we also knew that Gracie could have been
one of those that remained and remembered our call, “coming home”, so to speak ,
to visit friends from her childhood. We
chose that as truth. This was our now adult Gracie. When the boat docked , two
very enthralled men stepped off with a memory of an old friend that had come back
to say hello. Gracie remembered us, I know it.
