I have Yahoo message alerts set up so I get any news that gets published with the keyword "Moby Dick." This one came through today. "Moby Dick moment relived."
"National Parks and Wildlife Service spokesman Lawrence Orel said Drew and his parents were extremely lucky not to have been more severely injured."
A humpback whale attacked a small fishing boat of three people off south of Brisbane, Australia. First of all, the whale in the story is a humpback, not a sperm whale.
Second, I can't figure out if the whale actually "attacked."
"But neither saw the 12 to 13 metre humpback as it approached their vessel, striking Drew with its tail and smashing the windscreen and shade cover on the boat."
There were just "whales in the area," it said. Was it being protective? Was it just a bump?
Fascinating that it is called "Moby Dick moment relived." Relived, as in the original instance that caused Ahab to get all obsessive. No where else does the article talk about Moby Dick either. Actually, upon further analysis of the website, there was a previous article and in this second one, "relived" may reference just the retelling of the incident.
This is just another example of calling any whale Moby Dick, regardless of the circumstances. Sure, it "attacked" but that is the only tenuous connection to a novel written 161 years ago.
Compare this article to another one on the same exact incident: http://www.smh.com.au/environment/whale-watch/knocked-out-drew-vows-to-keep-having-a-whale-of-a-time-20110627-1gmo5.html . No mention of Moby Dick, only the goofy little cliche about having a "whale of a time."
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