mother humpback whale and calf

The humpback mother and calf (Megaptera noveangliae) from the past two days still weren’t in the mood to play, but we found another mom and calf. These two were totally accepting of our presence, and we spent 6 hours in the water with them. It’s rare for me to fill my memory cards, but after the day was over I had 744 underwater whale images totalling 10GB! I am sore and tired. Here are a couple teasers, but I’m keeping the best images private for the moment.

this mother kept rolling her belly toward us

It’s bizarre that the next shot was taken only eight minutes after the prior shot; it looks so different! The white belly of a humpback whale forces the camera to take a much shorter exposure, which darkens the surrounding water.

a calf sits on top of its mother

UPDATE Cetacean master Tony Wu has posted a short video of our first encounters in Tonga.