The most beautiful Humpback Whale in the world we met today! A stunningly beautiful female Humpback who had dark features and her long body was evident of a mature individual. Needless to say we fell in love at first sight as she gracefully launched herself into the sky. It is not too often that a Humpback Whale looks heavy this time of year, but this beautiful Humpback has been around for a long time and her enormous size (even after not having had anything to eat for almost six months) still created an incredible thud as she hit the surface. She continued to breach and head lunge her way towards us and we were enthralled with the magnificent surface active display. At this stage we did not sight a calf and after her continued surface activity it appeared she was seeking a companion to join her for the southern migration.
The breaching continued and it wasn’t until the very end of the display that she began to swim towards our stern and as we turned our heads we noticed why. During the entire time her calf had been cruising 100 meters to our port side behind us… what a surprise! Normally calves are within one body length of their mum but this little one did not seem concerned at all as he calmly swam up to mum and rejoined with her. The female had been so relaxed during her surface display it did appear that she had been calling out for a male escort to join with them. Thankfully, her mature size meant that the sound of her body landing on the surface after every breach could be heard loud and clear by her following calf. It was wonderful to watch as this beautiful Humpback Whale and her adorable calf gently moved off together and towards another breaching adult whale a few hundred meters away… we hoped that this was her Romeo in waiting!
