I mentioned in a previous post that it is the season in French Polynesia where the humpback whales travel up north from Antarctica during the winter months in order to give birth to the calves. It is toward the end of the season now, and soon the whales will be headed back down south for the summer. We had only seen one whale when we were in Huahine, and we were hoping for the chance to see some more when we arrived in Moorea.
While we were anchored off Opunohu Bay, we heard from several boats that some mother and calf pairs were spotted just outside the pass and occasionally came inside the lagoon. The authorities here have put some very reasonably regulations around getting close to the whales, as there are quite a few tourist whale watching operations on the island. We were told that you could not get close to the whales if they came inside the lagoon. However, outside the lagoon it was permissible to swim next to them as long as you kept the boats a reasonable distance away.
Our friends Marcus and Diana on Allora had been able to jump in with the whales a few days earlier and promised to call us the next time they were able to spot them. So, we weren’t too surprised when Diana called us one morning to say that they were near some whales in their dinghy just outside the pass. So, Mike and I quickly put the dinghy in the water, threw on some wetsuits and gathered our snorkel gear to go join them.
When we arrived, the whale watching boats were a bit in the distance watching some other whales. No one except Marcus and Diana were close to a mother and calf that were just hanging out right off the reef. I quickly threw on my mask and fins and slid into the water. Unfortunately, the visibility wasn’t as good as the last few times we had been outside the lagoon to dive. In order to see where to swim to, you had to look for the whales on the surface. But, once you got within 10 or 15 feet of the whales, they were quite visible!
I was a bit nervous to get that close to these large animals. The momma whale was about 40 feet long (as big as our boat!). The calf was probably 15 feet long. The calf was swimming at the surface just above the momma whale’s head. Occasionally, the momma whale would nudge the calf up toward the surface, but she stayed submerged and almost stationary in the water.
As Diana and I got closer, the baby whale would do flips and turns and just stare at us with it’s big eye. They weren’t bothered by us being close to them at all. They seemed curious and a bit intrigued by us being there. Diana was a bit braver than I was getting pretty close to the calf to get some incredible photos. I tried to keep a bit of a distance knowing that if the whales decided to take off quickly, we didn’t want to be anywhere near where that powerful tail could accidentally hit us.
It was fascinating to watch the baby whale play at the surface while the mother kept close watch. She would let it go a few feet in front of her and then come up underneath it again. The adult whales can stay underwater a lot longer than the calves can. She had to make sure that the calf stayed near the surface to be able to breathe. But, other than nudging the calf, the momma whale didn’t move very much. I had read that whales, unlike humans, don’t truly sleep. They just rest one half of their brains at a time. They are conscious breathers, again unlike humans who breathe unconsciously, so they have to be aware enough to decide when to come up and take a breath.
We wondered if the momma whale was basically sleeping, as she really hadn’t moved much for the 20 or so minutes that we were swimming all around her. But, then suddenly, she decided it was time to come up. With one flick of the tail, momma and baby were on the move. We looked up out of the water to see the baby breach out of the water followed by that momma whale jumping clear out of the water as well. Then, they both did it again giving us a fantastic show.
We weren’t in the dinghy long before we saw another momma and baby whale a little bit off in the distance. We turned off the outboard before we got too close and slipped back in the water again to swim over to them. They let us swim around them for a few minutes before they turned and headed right toward us! We were trying to keep some distance from them, but again, they seemed to be quite aware of us. Right before they got to us, they dove and swam right under us! It was thrilling!
It was such a fantastic experience to swim with these magnificent animals. Its almost unimaginable how big they are until you see them up close. The humpbacks look almost prehistoric to me. I don’t know how long they’ve been on the earth, but it isn’t hard to imagine that they (or something like them) were around at the time of dinosaurs. They are clearly intelligent creatures who were as curious about us as we were about them. They could have easily swum away the minute that we got close, but they didn’t. Perhaps we were the real tourist attraction.
My video did not turn out nearly as well as Diana’s fantastic photos of our experience. I hope you enjoy this brief glimpse of what we saw in the water….
~Katie
