‘Just like a ballet’: Woman spots humpback whale breaching off North Myrtle Beach coast
In 11 years of visiting North Myrtle Beach, Sissy England had seen plenty of whales. Last week, in a first, she spotted a humpback whale breaching so close to shore she could hear it.
She sat on the condo’s balcony to do some reading while overlooking the ocean when she heard a splash loud enough to grab her attention.
“I heard the pelicans splashing and then I heard something much louder. I looked up and I said, ‘That’s bigger than a pelican,’” England said.
That was when she went inside to grab binoculars and tell her husband and son to come outside.
England estimated the whale to be about 50 yards from the shore.
“When the tail came up and it started slapping, you could hear it splashing. It was that close to shore,” she said. “This went on for probably five to seven minutes. It went in a circle.”
England, who is from North Carolina, said a Coastal Carolina University professor to whom she showed the video identified the whale as a humpback.
“I’ve seen humpbacks here before but I’ve never been lucky enough to catch one breaching,” she said.
“In all of our years of being here. . . I’ve never seen a whale do this kind of behavior.”
She said the behavior was known as lob-tailing, which whales might do to get rid of parasites or to scare predators off.
England said she felt pure excitement at the sight.
“It was just like a ballet,” she said. “I felt so blessed that God had put me here at this time to see it.
“It was majestic, to see something like that have that kind of power.”
