As the sun dipped beneath the Southern California horizon Thursday, a glowing shape that resembled the profile of a sperm whale materialized above the ocean’s surface.
Enough of a resemblance, anyway, to compel me to capture a few images from the overlook at Moonlight State Beach in Encinitas.
To ensure that I hadn’t visualized something that existed only in my imagination, I shared the images with a whale researcher, Alisa Schulman-Jainger, and asked her opinion.
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“I does look kind of like a sperm whale with its mouth open,” she conceded.
The source of the whiteish glow outlining the whale shape might have been a contrail illuminated by the sun.
Hardly a spiritual revival of Moby Dick, but perhaps a likeness that fans of cetaceans, sunsets, and cloud formations will appreciate.
–Images courtesy of ©Pete Thomas