The hands of Pachico Mayoral, a fisherma

The hands of Pachico Mayoral, a fisherman of the San Ignacio Lagoon in Baja California Sur state, Mexico, are pictured during an interview on February 28, 2010. Like other fishermen, he usually beat his boat with a stick to try to keep the whales away, but once he hesitated. "The whale insisted, going from one side of the boat to the other, and at one point I was curious and, very gently, I stroke the whale's face. And nothing happened. It stayed calm", Mayoral told on his first encounter with a grey whale 40 years ago. Mayoral's first encounter with a friendly whale started the development of a small-scale whale-sightseeing industry in the remote spot off Mexico's northwest Baja California peninsula, where grey whales breed and nurse their calves each year after migrating thousands of miles from Canada and Alaska. AFP PHOTO/OMAR TORRES (Photo credit should read OMAR TORRES/AFP via Getty Images)