When Dan
Knaub talks about humpback whales, he does so on a first name basis. As founder
of The Whale Video Company, his connection to the 50-ton marine mammals is
personal. With pride in his eyes, he shared the life history of one of his
favorite whales friends in the ocean, Salt.
"She was the very first whale named. She's at least 44 years old," he
said. "Salt has 12 calves and 10 grandcalves, that we know of."
Salt is one of more than 500 humpback whales named by those who observe and
study their behavior on a daily basis.
"Salt
was named for her white dorsal fin. Looked like somebody sprinkled salt on her
back," he explained.
It's a
friendship the Mechanicsburg resident developed over 16 years of video taping
whale watching trips off the coast of New England.
In total,
Knaub estimates he spent more than 68-thousand hours on the water taping the
whales. That's enough time to build a video archive of more than 8-thousand
hours for his whale video company, an enterprise he never envisioned 25 years
ago. That's when he left a secure job in banking to go watch whales. After his
very first trip, he was hooked. He says that kind of reaction is typical of
many new watchers.
"It's
the event of a lifetime for many, many of them," he said. " And I
believe they become instant fans of whales."
His videos
are like a family album to him, with each whale triggering fond memories.
31-year-old Colt is one of them.
"Colt's
famous for coming up to the boat," Knaub explained. "In fact, he was
voted the friendliest whale in the world."
But Knaub
worries because his huge archive currently exists only on hundreds of aging
master tapes. So, he's seeking sponsors to help with the expense of saving
them.
"My
objective right now is to preserve, to digitize and annotate the entire archive
and find a home for it, where educators and researchers, around the world, can
work with it," he explained.
Individuals
wanting to help can" adopt a whale" at Knaub's website, www.whalevideo.com. For a 30 dollar fee,
sponsors receive a DVD and family history of the adopted whale.
