As I See It,

Bill Sargent, The Daily News of Newburyport, Edition June 9, 2018

“In early May I heard rumors that Right Whales were feeding off Gloucester’s eastern shore. I thought my chances of seeing the whales were slim, but how many times do you get to see endangered species swimming just offshore?”

“If I saw what were supposed to be four or five whales I would be seeing 1 percent of all the North Atlantic Right Whales in the world and 5 percent of the 100 individuals in New England. It certainly seemed worth a try.”

“Brant was dabbling in the quiet waters beside the Eastern Point breakwater that protects Gloucester Harbor where a tall schooner was sailing toward the horizon and fishing boats were steaming toward their fishing grounds.”

“A group of engaging kids from East Boston were on an Audubon sponsored marine biology field trip. They told me they had just seen whales swimming north, so I decided to drive along the shore until I found a spot where I might be able to see them.”

“This entailed driving around a beautiful old ice pond where several cars had pulled over to watch a pair of swans mating beside the road.”

“The male was standing on top of the female, holding her neck in his beak as animals often do to get leverage as they mate. But we quickly realized something was seriously wrong. The male was repeatedly slamming the female’s head onto the ground. He wasn’t mating—he was trying to kill the female in the most horrific manner possible. She was scared, exhausted, wounded and near to death.”

“It was clear that this battle had started in the pond where the male had been trying to hold the female’s head underwater while using his superior weight to drown her.”

“By this time, two other people realized we were witnessing an attempt to murder, so we did our best to keep the male off the exhausted female. This was dangerous because a full-grown swan can break a man’s arm with its powerful wings. But the male was so intent on getting back to the injured female that it ignored us.”

“After several tries we were finally able to herd the male into the pond where he arched his back and rose up out of the water, flapping his wings in what was an obvious victory dance that would have gotten him ejected from any NFL football game.”