On the California waters on Monterrey Bay, an gigantic humpback whale has been captured breaching its waters.
In the amazing footage – you can see the whale shooting up through the ocean waves very close to an unsuspecting fisherman’s boat named Baja Sueno.
“The whale is huge! If I’d been the fisherman, I’d probably need some new underwear,” the photographer shared with the media.
The beast made the fishing boat look very tiny in comparison.
Douglas Craft – the photographer – captured pictures from the porthole of another boat from an upward angle that made the sea animal look even bigger.
“I went below deck to shoot from a porthole close to the water line. That’s what gives this amazing perspective of looking up at the whale,” Douglas shared with a news agency.
Craft also had help from Kate Cummings, whale watcher, who was able to capture a video of the whale jumping in action.
The whale watcher then revealed to the media:
“It was fun capturing this video. The whale had already breached multiple times much further away from the fisherman. But sometimes when whales breach multiple times, they’re also heading a specific direction when they’re underwater building momentum for the next breach. I figured the next breach would be around the fisherman because the whale was heading that way and sure enough! Though I didn’t expect the whale and the boat to line up so perfectly.”
So why do whales breach?
It is assumed that whales breach as a way to inform others of a desire or a for of play.
And during mating season, some species are known to breach more often than during their feeding season.
This suggests that the male whales may breach as a way to indicate a desire to mate or show off their physical youthfulness — which may help them land a mating partner.
You can watch the epic footage below:
While humpback whales were once hunted to the brink of extinction — there are now close to 80,000 with their size ranging in length from 39-52 feet.
“Humpback whales are known for their beautiful songs, which are often heard during mating season. In addition to being used in their mating rituals, whale songs are also believed to be used as other forms of communication, though this is poorly understood. The songs are described as a combination of moans, cries and howls and can be heard underwater for many miles.” according to SCUBA Diving.
But not every whale is made the same.
“Like a human fingerprint, the tail of each humpback whale is unique. A photographic catalog of all known North Atlantic whales is maintained by College of the Atlantic.”
And while you may not believe it, whales are very intelligent creatures.
“During the humpbacks’ feeding season, these whales hunt using a technique known as bubble net fishing — a group of humpback whales swim around their prey in a circle and blow bubbles around their prey in order to herd the fish into a tight ball.”
To learn more about humpback whales, you can click here.
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