Dance With Whales

a playful calf making a close approach

3 different views - when whales fly. Of course these are not the same whale. Whales are such large and complicated animals, that it takes vast amounts of time documenting them to even begin to tell the story. It also requires a lot of patience, as you must work with them on their own time. All the environmental conditions might be perfect, but it means nothing if the there are no whales, or if the whales are not interested. These photos are over the course of multiple seasons in two different countries. 1. Using a drone, the moment a baby whale crashes into the water. 2. I took this from a boat, of a full grown whale lunging or doing a lazy breach. (even lazy breaches aren’t lazy and require immense amounts of strength 3. Playful baby whale breaching as close to me as she could while her mother slept down bellow. Whales breach for a variety or reasons including play, building muscles, teaching the calves, communicating, fighting (to crush another whale during mating battles), waking themselves up after singing / sleeping, possible removal of barnacles / parasites. I’ve seen mother’s breach to let their calves know their locations after the calf wandered off, and whales breach after a long period of rest before migrating to other islands. There are probably countless other reasons that we haven’t even begun to consider.

Mother and calf humpback passing through the blue waters off Tonga

A large humpback whale making a close pass beneath me. See the little white circular rings? Those are scars from barnacles that have fallen off the whale. You can see some living barnacles trailing on the edge of his fin. @dancewithwhales

This is a place I can go to hundreds of times and not get tired of photographing. The light and conditions are always changing, making it very challenging, and dynamic to photograph. Often there’s river of fish that responds to your movements as beams of sunlight move across the cave. All this after spending the day freediving with whales. In this photo @_charyse dives through a ball of fish.

A cute little humpback whale calf, the size or a car. If you want to swim with whales this October, click the link in bio!

People often ask how close humpback whales will get to you. Here’s a full grown whale who swam directly under me and then towards @_charyse. Calves sometimes don’t understand the concept of a personal bubble and will get very close, the adults will leave some space. This one took the approach of a playful calf. A couple spots left this year! Link in bio

Humpback whales coming up to the surface to breath. A couple spots have opened up this October if you’re interested in joining

A mother and calf humpback sleeping in the deep blue.

A little whale floating up to the surface to breathe and play. Adult humpback whales hold their breath for about 20 minutes when resting. Their calves have to come up to breath every 4-5 minutes. If you want to swim with whales in October, send me a message. (I’ve just had 1 opening) @dancewithwhales

Humpback calf and its mother @dancewithwhales

humpback whale calf making a close pass. The scratches on its back are surface scratches from rubbing against her mother’s barnacles