pir·ou·ette

This baby loved to twirl and dance and spin for us! You can see him looking right at me, almost as if to say "How's this, are you getting this?"

Play Time

I consider this whale to be a good friend after our three days together. The hours of friendly interaction with this playful baby are some of my most precious memories and I'm not the only one. One guest from this trip had 'the most incredible moment of his life' with this same calf the day before this was taken, and another guest is having this image tattooed on her body because of her interactions with it. Special, special whale.

Piggyback

One of my favorite things about interacting with the whales is watching the calves play around mom. It looks a bit like the calf is resting here, but it really was just moving around moms head while they were both up for a breath. They will circle and roll around and frolick all over mom, who always seems infinitely patient with her rambunctious newborn.

Tiny Bubbles

Face to Face

Another image of our rambunctious, scarred baby from 2018. Should grow into a remarkable, distinct adult!

Serenity

There are a lot of nearly silent moments with the whales, where it's just you and this enormous creature and the sound of the surface splashing around. This particular whale was a young singer, he would spend 15-20 minutes down singing his heart out and then come up for a breath or two before carrying on.

Timeout

I got the distinct impression that this juvenile put himself in a timeout, sitting nose down over a shallow reef thinking about what he'd done.

Competition Pod

A silent, beautiful dance between one female and ten male suitors off Hunga in Vava'u, Kingdom of Tonga.

Dance With Me

Humpbacks are remarkably acrobatic considering their sheer size. They effortlessly twirl and dance while we watch, amazed.

Helicopter Mom

Humpback moms are ON it. Baby doesn't stray more than 50' away usually, and mom is always quick to react if it does. It has to be an exhausting job, especially with zero food for the first few months and a long journey ahead to cold waters of the feeding grounds.

Rough and Tumble Baby

We were fortunate to spend a lot of time with this particular calf during our 2018 season. I was particularly struck by how many marks and scars it had already collected in its short life. Looking forward to seeing it in future seasons as it grows!

Surface Interval

If you look closely, you can see that both mom and calf have an eye closed here, sleeping at the surface. They usually will have one eye open and sleep with half their brain at a time, though we took our time approaching this encounter and were rewarded with mom being very comfortable and often sleeping at the surface with both eyes closed.

Bubble Baby

This little calf from our 2018 season had the most texture of any whale I've seen. So much going on, it will be interesting to see how he grows up!