Meet TikTok‘s @sailing_songbird, the founder of the pipeline from middle school teacher to champion of the Pacific Ocean. His exploits no doubt inspire the world’s many mavericks, as well as the proponents of satellite-based service, the most hardcore Jaws enthusiasts, and those of us who prefer proxy adventure to actual adventure. Indeed, who wouldn’t cheer for this guy?
By the looks of his profile and his most recent TikTok upload, our hero is about one month-and-a-third into his very long, very wet journey — but more than long and wet, sailing across the Pacific Ocean by yourself is lonely. All you really have for company is the endless horizon, and let’s face it, that’s some pretty intimidating company to have.
But good things come to those who wait, and this righteous descendent of Odysseus was recently treated to a spot of sea mammal kinship; a whole school of it, in fact.
On day 27 of his journey, our hero was facing the most aggressive storm that he had faced up to that point; dark, choppy waters surrounded him, and a towering overcast engulfed the sky. Amid this duress, however, was a shining ray of light in the form of a posse of pilot whales (according to the consensus of the comments section), who delightfully popped up from the water and dove back down with all the enthusiasm of a beast built for socializing.
Watching the lot of them wriggle along together was a magnificent sight, and the sailor gladly thanked the cetaceans for keeping him company. And just as well, because keeping company is the bread and butter of pilot whales. According to Discover Wildlife, pilot whales form multigenerational bonds with one another and travel, hunt, rest, and play together, with infertile females pitching in to help care for the babies of those who do give birth. These pods can get as big as 100 members.
Unfortunately, whales’ sociability and curiosity is also their greatest threat. At least, humans are the biggest threat to pilot whales specifically, because hunters (chiefly in and around the Faroe Islands, Greenland, and Saint Vincent and the Grenadines) exploit their commitment to togetherness in order to direct them into places where they can be easily killed. Pollution and encounters with fishing gear, meanwhile, are also harmful to pilot whales, who have no natural predators otherwise.
Luckily, @sailing_songbird is no whale hunter; he’s an adventurer just like the pilot whales, and game seems to have recognized game here.
