Today was the perfect day for a mother and calf pod to practice their tail dives and we can say they were a big ten out of ten! Swimming towards us, we recognised this pod from one that we sighted yesterday and both seemed pleased to be in our company again… almost a much as we were to be in theirs. Moving away from two other pods they decided to find a calm area to rest in and although we were only in ten meters of water, mum started to gently lift her flukes and dive. Her calf quickly copied mum and this continued for the rest of our time with these two beautiful Humpback Whales as they travelled along the coast.
One of the importances of a tail dive is not only the opportunity for us to capture the perfect identification photo, as every tail fluke is just like a fingerprint and is unique to that individual whale. Secondly, practicing the perfect tail dive like this mother and calf were doing today is very important as in future years this calf will need to know how to gracefully dive without allowing her fluke to slap the waters surface. Should this slap occur, any shark or Orca close by will easily hear this signal of their whereabouts. Today was a lesson for this calf in graceful and stealthy movement!
