I tentatively reached up and laid my hand on the huge sea creature. It seemed neither hot nor cold to my touch. Our bodies in a kind of temperature equilibrium.

“It is a mammal after all.” I thought. “Just a really big one!”

Before me lay the largest denizen of the deep I had ever seen. A giant whale, now stranded in a foot of water and fighting for its life.

As my hand remained there for a few seconds the whale released a breath from its blowhole making me jump and I felt the vibration go all through me. I was touching another mammal, but one so magnificent, so wonderous, it felt a sacred moment.