AD 2016 Q1
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RESEARCH, EDUCATION & MEDICINE<br />
DAN WAS THERE FOR ME<br />
Touch and Go in Tonga<br />
Text and photos by Douglas Hoffman<br />
Istarted diving in 1985 and have been traveling<br />
the world to dive ever since. I have always had<br />
DAN® dive accident insurance in case I ever<br />
experienced a dive emergency, but thankfully I<br />
have not needed it. Another reason I’ve always<br />
been a DAN member is the evacuation benefit.<br />
I had the occasion to use that service just a few months<br />
ago, and it saved my life.<br />
For the past 11 years I have guided expeditions<br />
dedicated to observing and photographing Southern<br />
Hemisphere humpback whales in Tonga, where<br />
swimming with the whales is permitted. Known as<br />
the friendly isles, this South Pacific nation is about a<br />
90-minute flight from Fiji or a three-hour flight from<br />
New Zealand. It’s remote, its infrastructure is lacking,<br />
and in many ways going there is like going back in time.<br />
Because of this remoteness, I require everyone who<br />
goes one of my tours to be a DAN member and have<br />
DAN dive accident insurance. It is better, of course, to<br />
have it and not need it than to need it and not have it.<br />
Fortunately, I practice what I preach, because on<br />
Aug. 29, 2015, I needed it.<br />
That afternoon we observed a relaxed mother and<br />
calf at the surface. After watching them for a while, we<br />
decided the time was right and slipped into the water.<br />
We swam about 100 feet and saw the whales, so we<br />
stopped and watched. We made no attempt to swim<br />
toward them and let them decide if they wanted to<br />
interact with us. As it happened, they did, and we floated<br />
side by side for more than an hour.<br />
When the encounter began, the mother positioned the<br />
baby on her far side. As she became more comfortable<br />
with our presence, she made some subtle changes to her<br />
position, and the baby reacted by changing its position.<br />
The calf swam over the mother’s back and alongside her,<br />
close to us. At one point the mother and I were floating<br />
just a few feet apart and looked into each other’s eyes —<br />
it was magical.<br />
During that swim I had some stomach discomfort,<br />
but I shrugged it off as indigestion. It persisted through<br />
44 | WINTER <strong>2016</strong>
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