Stumpy, a humpback whale nicknamed because of its lack of a tail, was sighted today off the coast of Australia - some 20,000 km (12,400 mi.) from where he was first sighted years ago.
And in a coincidence worthy of a cosmic joke, Stumpy was first spotted by one Mr. Short:
The boat's skipper Allan Short said he last saw the disfigured whale as a yearling in Hervey Bay in 2001. Scratch marks on its side indicate it was injured in a killer whale attack, Mr Short said.
"When we first saw Stumpy in Hervey Bay in 2001 we thought for sure he wouldn't survive without his tail," he said. "It's a 20,000-kilometre return journey when they migrate and that is an amazing feat for a whale without a tail."
I'm almost done with Christopher Moore's Fluke, and this is really weird to me. I have to wonder if it used to have a tail that had "Bite Me" written on it.
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