Boy, 3, dies from whale-watching injury
By Derrick DePledge
Advertiser Staff Writer
A 3-year-old Mainland boy with his family on a whale-watching cruise off Diamond Head died today after a humpback whale apparently slapped its tail near the boat, causing the boy to fall and hit his head.
"We've never had anything like this happen before," said P. Michael Watson, president of Dream Cruises Hawai'i, which has operated cruises in Hawai'i for nine years. "It's just a tragic, tragic accident."
American Dream, a 108-foot motor yacht, left Kewalo Basin for a midmorning whale-watching excursion near Diamond Head with about 50 passengers on board. After spotting whales in the distance, Watson said, the boat's captain, Monroe Wightman, was headed toward the whales when other humpbacks surfaced near the boat.
After the boat slowed, one whale apparently lifted its tail out of the water and slapped it near the boat's port side, startling passengers standing along the rail and, Watson said, causing the boy and his father to fall backwards, where the boy hit his head on a rail or another part of the boat.
Watson said the boy was in his father's arms at the time the whale emerged. A Coast Guard spokesman said later that the boy could have been standing with his parents near the rail.
The boy was knocked unconscious after the fall, Watson said, and was treated by a nurse who was also a passenger on the cruise. A Coast Guard helicopter was called and pulled the boy from the yacht at about 10:30 a.m.
Coast Guard Lt. Cmdr. Todd Offutt said the helicopter was going to Kapi'olani Medical Center but the Coast Guard crew sensed engine trouble and landed at Honolulu International Airport instead. An ambulance took the boy to The Queen's Medical Center, where he later died.
Investigators with the Coast Guard and the Honolulu Police Department spoke with the American Dream's crew members. Wightman and other crew members were given a drug test, which is routine after serious incidents, and the results should be known within four to five days. Dream Cruises is also expected to file an official report on the incident with the Coast Guard.
"There is no apparent wrongdoing or foul play," Offutt said after the Coast Guard's preliminary investigation.
Humpbacks travel from their feeding grounds off Alaska to Hawai'i every winter, where they breed in the warm Island waters. Thousands of people take whale-watching tours every year, making it one of Hawai'i's top attractions.
The site of today's incident appears to have been within national whale sanctuary waters, said Jeff Walters, co-manager of the Hawaiian Islands Humpback Whale National Marine Sanctuary. It is legal, and common, for whale-watching boats to look for whales in this area, he said.
It would be a violation if a boat approached closer than 100 yards of a whale, "but if the whale approaches you, that is not usually considered a violation," Walters said.
Walters said that today's incident appears to be unusual. The sanctuary sponsored a three-day conference in September to discuss whale-boat collisions and possible steps to minimize such incidents. "I definitely think it's a freak occurrence," he said.
Close encounters between boats and whales are not uncommon because the animals are unpredictable and sometimes difficult to spot.
Three collisions were reported in the first months of this year, during the end of the last whale season, which typically runs from December through April. Two collisions were reported the previous year.
On Feb. 13, 2001, a woman on a whale-watching boat off Kaua'i was injured when a young humpback whale breached and landed on the stern of the boat.
The visitor, identified only as Sandra Gieb, suffered a broken knee and was taken to West Kaua'i Medical Center for treatment. Doug Phillips, a co-owner of Na Pali Eco Adventures, said at the time that he estimated the whale to be 20 to 25 feet long. The whale's head landed on the stern of the company's 40-foot catamaran, the Hokua, he said.
Anne Rillero, a spokesperson for the Pacific Whale Foundation, said she would not characterize whale-watching as a dangerous activity. "This is certainly a sad and unfortunate situation," she said of today's incident. "My heart goes out to that family."
Advertiser assistant city editor Andy Yamaguchi contributed to this report.
