Swimming with Moby Dick Sans The Gear

Summary: If diving and swimming with sperm whales at the frigid waters of Alaska is the epitome of stupidity, then no one is more stupid than a famed photographer from New York who just did that. And the result was tons of amazing close encounter photos with the giants of the ocean. The term 'stupidity' is not the word you would want to associate with the said photographs; not if you know how the snapshots were taken. And that's where the 'stupidity' part comes in.

If diving and swimming with sperm whales at the frigid waters of Alaska is the epitome of stupidity, then no one is more stupid than a famed photographer from New York who just did that. And the result was tons of amazing close encounter photos with the giants of the ocean. The term 'stupidity' is not the word you would want to associate with the said photographs; not if you know how the snapshots were taken. And that's where the 'stupidity' part comes in. The photographer (I forgot the name of the man, so sue me), along with his crew, flew to Alaska's city of Anchorage, rented a small fishing boat and relentlessly scanned the icy waters of the Alaskan seas for signs of the sperm whales. Now to wholly grasp the picture of the situation, sperm whales are one of the biggest animals in the world, the largest toothed animal on this planet. An adult male sperm whale can grow up to 20.5 meters (67 feet) long and can weigh on an average of 13-14 tons (12000-12000 kg). Any man with a common sense will not venture out into the open sea looking out for these creatures. And any thinking man will know that one lash of its huge tail could make the ocean floor a graveyard for any person unfortunate enough. But the photographer from New York did. So it's either courage or foolhardy stupidity. The latter seems to be the rational choice. But it gets more stupid than that. Our brave and stupid (forgive the redundancy, it's for emphasis) photographer along with his, her, fearless crew was able to spot a pod of sperm whales. The New Yorker went to prepare his underwater camera, his anti-cold scuba suit, his swimming goggles, and his scuba fins. No breathing apparatus, no safety cage, no snorkels. Heck, no scuba gear that could spell the difference between life and death. His plan: to capture photos while swimming with the whales in au naturelle fashion. Can it get more stupid than that? Of course, as mentioned earlier, he came back alive with no mishap, except for some body shaking after swimming in almost sub-zero waters. He suffered no irreparable damage, which is a blessing, one should say. The photographs were sensational and majestic. The photographer? Brave and daring, yes. Stupid? HELL YEAH!