Part of why I love going whale watching is for the moments you can’t predict. We know that Humpbacks breach (aka fling themselves out of the water at speed, twist around and land on their backs with a huge splash). We have theories about why, but no confirmed answers – they haven’t returned the survey forms yet.
You never know when they are going to come up. While they often breach multiple times in a row, and you can see which direction the head back down under water, the “where will they come up next” is guess work. And every now and then they pull a “crazy Ivan” and turn underwater before lauchning into the air – in front of and very very close to a boat (in this case). Yes, the passengers got SOAKed and laughed alot in amazement, as did those of us watching.
The only adjustments I made to these photos were for lighting because fog and moving whales is alot for even a DSLR camera to contend with
Photos by C. Pennington April 17, 2025 on board Blue Ocean Whale Watch