Boaters spot ‘famous’ creature known for tiger-like scars. See the ‘incredible’ animal
.jpg "The scarred humpback was spotted off the coast of Eden in New South Wales, witnesses said.")
Tracey Harris is a passionate wildlife photographer in Australia, and among her favorite things to capture with her camera are whale flukes.
“l love whale tails and find every one as beautiful as they are unique,” she told McClatchy News in a Facebook message.
So when she spotted a dorsal fin while aboard a Cat Balou Cruises tour boat on Aug. 26, Harris said she immediately started snapping photos of the creature.
“I locked focus on the dorsal hoping it would show me it’s fluke,” Harris said. “It was then that l notice unusual marks near its dorsal fin, and thought to myself...wow…it looks like a tiger with those marks. It’s back then came up and l couldn’t believe what l was seeing.”
Harris continued taking photos of the humpback. Then she rushed into the boat’s cabin and immediately sent her photos to other whale experts.
She showed her photos to a deckhand and another whale watcher on the boat, and the group quickly realized that Harris had captured photos of a special humpback: It was Bladerunner.
Bladerunner is a well-known whale in Australia, according to the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC). She is known for the gruesome scars covering her body and tail after she was cut by a ship’s propeller in 2001.
“We were all so excited, and so happy to see she is still with us,” Harris said. “A famous whale…that l never ever imagined I’d see and photograph, and as beautiful as that moment was for me, l couldn’t help but feel emotional and sad that as a calf she suffered such horrific injuries.”
Cat Balou Cruises said its experts photographed Bladerunner years ago, according to an Aug. 26 Facebook post.
“It was fantastic to see her again,” the company said. “Incredible how deep the propeller scars were and how well she has healed.”
Experts said Bladerunner’s injuries demonstrate the risks that humans pose to wildlife, especially whales.
“It’s bitter in the fact that it’s unfortunate the animal had to go through what it went through as a result of human activity,” Duane March, a marine wildlife team leader with the New South Wales National Parks and Wildlife Service, told ABC. “But sweet in the fact that it’s awesome the animal has healed and lived 20 years on and it’s still going about and doing its thing.”
Harris said she was in Twofold Bay in Eden when she saw Bladerunner. Eden is about 300 miles south of Sydney.
This story was originally published August 29, 2023 at 12:16 PM with the headline "Boaters spot ‘famous’ creature known for tiger-like scars. See the ‘incredible’ animal."
