Nan Hauser, a whale biologist from Brunswick, knew the world had changed dramatically when she was handed a face mask before boarding an airplane to head home. She watched, bewildered, as people ferociously scrubbed surfaces with antibacterial wipes, masks covering every face in sight.

“It was an interesting experience because for me, the COVID-19 world is completely new,” said Hauser. “Even though I’m a latecomer to this terrible party, it’s still terrifying.”

This was a new reality full of COVID-19 precautions she encountered after leaving Rarotonga, the largest of the Cook Islands in the Pacific Ocean, a place still untouched by COVID-19. She visits the island each year to research whale populations, acoustics, genetics, behavior, navigation and migration. She serves as the president and director of the Center for Cetacean Research and Conservation and the director and principal investigator of Cook Islands Whale Research.

Hauser left Brunswick for the Cook Islands in early January 2020, before the first case of COVID-19 was detected in the United States. She returned to Brunswick last week.

Untouched by the virus, Hauser said the Rarotonga airport and ports were closely monitored in the hopes of keeping the virus out. Nobody wore a face mask or socially distanced, practices vigorously adopted in Maine and across the nation in the hopes of mitigating the spread of COVID-19.

“It’s traditional there that when you see someone, even if you don’t know them, you kiss them on the cheek,” said Hauser. “We were told to cut down on the kissing, but most people didn’t.”

While having no reported COVID-19 cases may have been comforting to some, Hauser, a registered nurse, was terrified.

“It was frightening to know what the world was going through,” she said. “As we heard more about it, we were scared it would come to Rarotonga. If it did, it was predicted a third of the island could die because Polynesian people are more at risk for asthma, diabetes and obesity and we only had one ventilator on the whole island.”

In the 16 months she was in Rarotonga, Hauser said she enjoyed swimming with whales regularly and continuing her research, but she missed Maine.

“I longed for Christmas with snow and a Christmas tree instead of palm trees,” she said. “I longed for Thanksgiving and I longed for my children and grandchildren. It makes you realize that your family is absolutely the most important thing in your life.”

Shortly after she returned to Maine, Hauser was invited to appear on “The Ellen DeGeneres Show” last week to tell the story of the time she was protected from a tiger shark by a humpback whale in 2017.

While swimming with whales one day, Hauser said a humpback whale approached her rapidly.

“I can’t push 50,000 pounds away from me, but I could push myself away from him,” said Hauser. “This whale was putting his head underneath me and I was sliding down his back and under his pectoral fin and he was pushing me. I think I touched every part of that whale.”

Hauser spotted what she initially thought was a smaller whale, but quickly realized it was a large tiger shark.

“It had its pectoral fins down and its back was arched, which is attack mode,” she said. “As I saw it, the whale put his head under me again and pushed me the rest of the way to the boat. Back on the boat, I started sobbing because I realized [the whale] protected me from the shark.”

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