Two tourists hurt diving with whales

[NewsWhore]

Two tourists were slightly injured when the fluke of a humpback whale struck them as they were diving near the large mammal. The tourists had sailed from Puerto Plata aboard the Turks & Caicos Aggressor II, a 90-foot yacht that takes tourists on dive tours to the Silver Banks, just north of Puerto Plata. According to the captain, Christopher Gugliermo, the incident occurred at about 4:30 in the afternoon as the tourists were swimming near a female whale and her calf. Captain Gugliermo reported that the tourists were swimming quite close to the whales when they apparently awakened, and when the two whales moved suddenly to distance themselves from the observers, the mother's tail (fluke) hit the two divers. They were taken to the Bournigal Clinic in Puerto Plata. Randy Thornton suffered a broken leg and Janet Blackwelder received a very strong blow to the back. Sunday's Listin Diario reports that both tourists are out of danger. After a day in the clinic's ICU, Thornton was transferred to a suite. Blackwelder was initially treated in the ER and later transferred to another suite. She suffered bruising to the spine. Apparently a strong current took the tourists, part of a group of 18 divers, too close to the whales. Regulations in place for whale observation limit how close observers can get to the whale, for both the safety of the whale and the observer.

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