THE teenager who made international headlines after he rode a whale off the WA coast says he just wanted a closer look at the gentle giant.

The Sunday Times can today reveal the boy who climbed on to a southern right whale off Middleton Beach in Albany, 420km south of Perth, last month was Sam Matheson, 14.

The Albany Senior High School student's actions sparked a Department of Environment investigation and made headlines in the US, Britain, Canada, New Zealand even Ghana.

But speaking publicly for the first time since the incident, the keen surfer, fisherman and motorcross rider said he regretted climbing on to the whale.

Sam said, in a spur-of-the-moment decision to see how close he could get, he swam out to the 14m whale, stroked it and then lifted himself on to the animal for about 30 seconds. He did not realise swimming within 30m of a whale was illegal or dangerous, he said.

"I was down at the beach with my mate Shayden. The whale was right there, only about 10 or 15m from the rocks. It's not that often that a whale comes so close. I wanted to seize the opportunity and have a closer look," he said.

"I swam out to it and put my arms on it, sort of laid against it for about 20 or 30 seconds. I was out of the water from the waist up. It was like a leather texture, like a really smooth leather, really soft. It wasn't even scary, it was like, 'Dude, it's a whale'.



"It didn't even notice me until I laid on it. Then it lifted up its tail, it went under and it pulled me down at bit, but I was fine and I swam back to the rocks.

"I didn't even think I'd done anything wrong until I saw the news and all the stories on the internet. It was on CNN. It was everywhere. If I had known it was illegal I wouldn't have done it."

His mother, Tammy Smit-Sell, 35, said Sam was "not a delinquent" but had an adventurous spirit.

She agreed to speak publicly to set the record straight after hurtful comments around town and some media reports that Sam stood or jumped on the whale.

"He's not bad misunderstood maybe but not bad. He's not a delinquent but he is gutsy," Mrs Smit-Sell said.

"He's grown up around the ocean, he loves the ocean. He loves surfing, fishing and diving. Sam would never even keep an undersize fish, let alone harm a whale. He's been taught to take care of the ocean. He's done what most people have only dreamed of doing.

"It was more like, 'Wow, there's a whale'. There's no way he'd ever want to hurt anything, and he certainly didn't realise it was illegal.

"Some of the comments I've heard have been really inappropriate. Some people have said, 'String him up and make an example of him'. Don't people remember what it's like to be a kid? He's a good kid and this was blown out of all proportion."

Sam said he weighed only 57kg and didn't think the whale would notice him. He estimated the whale was about 14m in length and 4m wide. "There was no malicious intent. I like fishing, but besides that, I would never hurt anything in the ocean," he said.

Wildlife officers were alerted when a beach-goer took a photo of Sam on the whale and reported the incident. Mrs Smit-Sell said she wanted to thank the woman for not releasing the photo.

Department of Environment and Conservation regional manager Mike Shephard said officers had interviewed Sam, who was remorseful, and issued him with a warning.

Harassing protected species is an offence under the Wildlife Conservation Act. The maximum penalty is $10,000. The exclusion zone around whales is 100m for boats, surfers and people on kayaks.