+ By Sukhbir Cheema 1 year, 7 months The great white shark. I am 10 and can’t bear to think about whales, look at whales, see, hear or look at one through the water especially. I mentioned it in my comment and I’m not sure if it’s applicable to anyone else but growing up in a religious family and hearing the story of Jonah and the whale definitely may play a part in my fear. The 60-tonne carcass of a blue whale is rotting along the shoreline of a town on Canada's east coast, triggering concerns from the community it could burst. Other causes of Cetaphobia include the fear of monsters which most children have. De Blue Whale Challenge is terug in Nederland. “But we believe this is just the tip of the iceberg. Sperm whales are supreme divers, jackknifing their muscular bodies down to spend up to two hours at depths of a mile or more, using their echo-locating clicks to find their favourite food – squid. Other techniques to overcome anxiety pertaining to Cetaphobia include meditating, positive visualization therapy etc. A fully grown healthy whale is more than a match for a shark. Where your child can open up easily and is not afraid of discussing anything with you. The pictures taken in deep ocean of these gigantic creatures scared me like nothing ever had before, and I have not been able to look at whales, or even think about them, since without going into a full blown panic. Killer whales need to work in packs just to kill a baby sea lion lol. Like all other phobias, the fear of whales can cause various symptoms such as: As most people are unable to understand the rationale behind such fear, the phobics tend to be laughed at or ridiculed. References and Further Reading But even these sharks are afraid of something. There is a theme park in Las Vegas where you sit in a moving theater and traverse through a land- it’s usually different depending on the time of the year. They feed almost exclusively on krill, straining huge volumes of ocean water through their baleen plates (which hang from the roof of the mouth and work like a sieve).Some of the biggest individuals may eat up to 6 tons of krill in 1 day. To me whales are very beautiful and i love it when we go the coast and see a tail (sorry people). Having recurrent nightmares of being swallowed by whales. How I learned about, and tried to conquer, my own cetaphobia. It will just deflate like an old balloon.". However, several encounters with whales through media have proven this wrong. I heard there are ways to get help for this phobia but I don’t know. People having an extreme fear … What's not to be afraid of regarding whales?? Some statistics will also show that human deaths owing to whales are few and rare. Whales are, by nature peaceful and will not intentionally harm humans. They called orcas asesina ballenas, or ‘whale killer’ – a term that was eventually flipped around to the easier ‘killer whale’. I am too old to have my fear of whales that have started with Finding Nemo (though my then four year old daughter and six year old niece laughed hysterically at me in the movie theater when that damn thing showed up on the screen and I nearly jumped out of my skin). Blue whales make terrible pets....Just ask Billy Twitters. Whales like humans are mammals and share many of the same physiological traits including the need to breathe air, however one major difference between humans and whales involves the difference in what affects a human or land animals ability to breathe and what affects a whales ability to breathe and this primary difference is the fact that humans live on land while whales live in the ocean. Others include NLP or the neurolinguistic programming and Cognitive behavior therapy. I did this one for fun. I can say I have this kind of phobia. It's not that irrational I mean come on for Christs sake there are people scared of glitter. I'm afraid of whales to. But little did we know that these silent hunters are actually not the ocean’s top predators. It seems so silly, but fearing the largest animal to ever exist, I feel is a rational fear. James Bartley (1870–1909) is the central figure in a late nineteenth-century story according to which he was swallowed whole by a sperm whale. However, there is one creature that great white sharks are genuinely terrified of, killer whales. Killer whales are usually portrayed as vicious and blood thirsty creatures. Has anyone been swallowed by a whale and survived? Other people tend to laugh at this seemingly irrational fear; after all, the chances of the phobic encountering a whale are usually very small. Just typing that gives me a fair amount of anxiety. Blue whales are typically not on the menu. New study: There’s one animal great white sharks are really afraid of When killer whales swim by, great whites flee, research at Farallon Islands discovers From that time, I was scared to look at it and my brothers used to flip those pages on my face. I can’t even look at pictures or videos. The largest whale ever measured was a female weighing 171,000 kgs and measuring over 90ft./27m long. I’ve been afraid of whales ever since I can remember. Whales Bermuda - the Humpback Whale Foundation in Bermuda. De Blue Whale Challenge is ook wel bekend onder de naam Blue Whale Game en is een dodelijk, misleidend 'spel' dat gespeeld wordt via social media. (Others had similar experiences of panic attacks after watching whales depicted in Free Willy, Fantasia 2000 or Pinocchio). They look like shrimps. She still makes fun of me to this day, which I think is funny. It is believed that many Japanese fishermen and tribal members of the Inuit developed the fear of these whales while hunting them. At nighttime, the moon watches its work. Nearing my 28th birthday in November and I don’t think it’s gotten any better. The carcass: Blue whales are world's biggest mammal. Boats - Blue whales can be killed or injured if they are hit by boats. "Nobody has been properly trained in the removal of whale carcasses of this size," she said. Blue whales don't have many natural predators, although they may be attacked by sharks and orcas. I know it’s stupid and my shipmates have given me hell for it but I can’t help it. Most Cetaphobes do not suffer the symptoms of their phobia on a day to day basis; only when they suddenly encounter a whale which is usually through media or TV. Blue whales and fin whales and humpback, sperm and orca whales; centrifugal forces don’t discriminate. If it wasn’t for it I would never connect the dots. ", "At some point, the skin of the animal will lose some of its integrity as all of the connective tissue starts to break down," Lawson said. The largest whale ever measured was a female weighing 171,000 kgs and measuring over 90ft./27m long. It would be so easy for it to knock over the raft and then you would be in the water with it. Blue whales have long, slender mottled grayish-blue bodies, although they appear blue underwater. They usually live only in the deepest parts of the ocean. Just imagining and seeing images of it, freaks me out til this day and I’m already on my 20’s! I can’t swim for too long or open my eyes under water because of this fear. The fear of the ocean or the fear of the sea having huge whales in it can cause the phobic to avoid the beach. I tried to watch a hells kitchen episode in season 7 where the blue team wins and goes to sea world, obviously to see Shamu. It started when I was a little, reading children’s encyclopedia with large photos of Blue whales. But ironically, I was able to dive with humpback whales, with my feet touching its tail. The first time I saw the whale, I … The phobic should try to gather up courage and view videos or movies about these gigantic creatures. You may wonder why this is important and how this is connected with the Blue Whale menace. There have been instances where I wonder if my cetaphobia is perhaps an unconscious mirage imposed on myself to have a fear of something, so I don’t feel left out. It’s really on-trend at the moment among exotic animal fans.” Dr Amander said that with the help of local activists, the WWF had helped secure the release of eight blue whales living in captivity across the UAE. As stated before, the fear of whales is usually triggered in one’s childhood on account of having watched films or movies related to whales. In each case, the whale, an inherently gigantic creature, is portrayed as a creeping up slowly on unsuspecting characters. I’m now 33 years old and still can’t even look at them. I vividly remember looking out of my bedroom window to see the gigantic tail of a whale rising out from the water. When we went whale watching this one time we were in a very stable metal boat but i saw people on little blow up ones. Perhaps my fear has more to do with giant creatures in general, maybe particular to the sea, as I was afraid of running into the giant squids in Wind Waker, but it was never quite the same reaction that I’d get just thinking about whales. Blue whales die of natural causes and are sometimes preyed upon by packs of killer whales.