#scarback

[hawkinsninth-a]

@scar-back from x

A shrug; not dismissive of the notion, but clearly not a strong subscriber to it. “Not sure I believe in souls.”

[spanmade]

[hawkinsninth-a]

@scar-back from x

The smile she offered was sad, wistful; she almost envied him his outlook. It was one she wished she could hold to, the idea that wanting more could be anything but painful.

“Not enough, perhaps,” she agreed quietly, a moment of pause before she continued. “But sometimes...sometimes it’s all there is.”

[scarbacksonly]

[volk-morya]

"A little edit from my whale watching on June 28th aboard The Whale's Tail, my favorite charter on the Oregon Coast. We saw a couple of whales cruising south at a pretty high rate of speed before we decided to head back north to watch one of our favorites, Scarback. Scarback is named for the large crater-like wound on her dorsal hump, believed to be caused by an exploding harpoon back in the 1970's. The wound has not and never will heal, but it constantly being cleaned by the whale lice who inhabit it. Since her attack she has produced at least 4 calves and continues to be a favorite among locals on the coast."

(video and above caption by Erik Urdahl)

Scarback was the first wild whale I ever saw. My grandparents took my brothers and me to the Oregon Coast every summer for more than a decade. The coast's "resident" gray whales, which do not continue to Alaskan waters in the summer but instead remain along the Oregon Coast all the way to October, made for wonderful off-season whale watching. The ecosystem along the Oregon Coast can support about 200 of these summer residents. (More info on the Oregon Coast's whales here.)