A small group of us were on the deck waiting, watching, listening for the signs of… whales! I headed off again to warm waters, but this time I was extremely lucky to be invited to join Jayne Jenkins the Australasian Vice-president of the Our World-Underwater Scholarship Society and tour leader with Quest Tours to Vava’u, Tonga.
I was given the most unique opportunity to witness the glorious ocean giants, Humpback Whales! This was an opportunity to be in the presence of these ocean mammals, up-close and personal like never before. The Humpback Whales who occupy the warm waters around Tonga and the South Pacific migrate all the from Antarctica over the winter months to spend their time giving birth, raising their calves and mating. To say the encounters were magnificent would be an understatement – seeing whales like this was overwhelming and I had to keep putting my head above the water to check this was actually real life.
From the surface, you can see the whales coming up to breathe from the small fountain that is pushed upon their exhale, and if the light hits it on the right angle, you even get a beautiful little rainbow. If you are lucky to be in the right place at the right time you may even see a whale breach and then you definitely know they are around.
Our day searching for whales began when we passed the beautiful Swallows Caves, and we had seven hours from there to hopefully find whales! The first whales which our skipper had spotted were relaxed, just breaking the surface of the calm Tongan waters to slowly exhale and then they hung just below the surface. We had come across a pair of adult whales slowly on the move!
As we all prepared to make the first plunge into the water to witness these incredible animals, it was a big wave of emotions. This was the second time I have been lucky enough to swim with Humpback Whales during my scholarship year, but the ocean conditions, as well as the whale behaviour in Tonga, is quite different to that of Ningaloo Reef in Western Australia with Coral Bay Eco Tours.
We all had our cameras ready, fins and mask on, snorkels in, ready in anticipation for what we were about to witness. As soon as our skipper Vili got us into the perfect position, our local whale guide Pillar yelled “okay… slide in!”, and as the bubbles disappeared from the jump, there below us were two enormous, yet graceful, Humpback Whales slowly cruising past us. It was an incredible visual feast, but just like that, it was over. These huge cetaceans although moving slowly, are still so powerful with just one beat of their tail, plunging them into the depths of the ocean.
Over the week I spent in Tonga, I witnessed and had interactions with various types of Humpback Whale behaviour. Heat-runs with multiple males powering through the water chasing a female to be the best of the best and prove they should be the one to mate with her. Only the strongest, toughest and most agile male wins this honour.
Mother and calves (only a few weeks old) relaxed at the surface just resting – the best encounter we had lasted over an hour!!! It was one of the most beautiful things I have ever seen.
Sometimes the mother and calves we followed by an escort, and other times we had mothers hanging below keeping a watchful eye of their calf while it played with us at the surface. And when I say play, I literally mean you think a Humpback Whale calf is going to swim straight into you because it is having such a wonderful time spinning and gliding through the water! These animals as huge as they were, knew exactly where we were at all times, demonstrating their sheer intelligence.
Even looking into the eyes of a calf – this was a next level crazy nature experience for me. As much as I love capturing the moments I have in the water, it is also so nice to just put the camera down and take all of this in. Especially when you have a Humpback Whale calf, that is just a few weeks old, eye-to-eye with you!!!
There were “Singers” – male Humpbacks that would hang vertically in the water and sing for up to twelve minutes, the same melody in several variations, but the song would vibrate deep into your bones as you floated above and listened in awe. To finally, but quite possibly my favourite interaction, a huge male just playing at the surface, spinning, dancing and spy-hopping for over an hour! We had to take turns with other tour companies for swims with this male, but he didn’t seem to mind the attention in the slightest!
This experience was such a highlight for me and gave me the most wonderful opportunity to witness these magnificent ocean giants like never before, but also see how important eco-tourism, research on their behaviour and ecology, as well as their conservation and protection for the future of this species is.
As Climate Change is one of my main areas of interest, I know how important research on the whole ecosystem, from the bottom-up, as well as top-down is, in order to be able to make the best management and conservation decisions. Understanding and researching what we can’t see with the naked-eye, like phytoplankton and zooplankton (what whales eat!), to what influences whale’s behaviour, their habitat, population ecology, is all linked and so important to understand, in order to be able to best protect the things we see and love like whales. This experience has definitely lead me to see how past scholars such as Melinda Brown are so inspired to study and understand cetacean ethology.
Our days were complete once we reached Swallows Caves, but it was a stunning snorkel and freediving site to end what already were incredible days. Getting its name due to the fact that Swallows and other species of birds like Tropic birds roost in the top of the caves, Swallows Caves are made up of two caves with incredible rock formations. The caves are full of huge schools of baitfish, plus other critters like Sea Snakes!
A HUGE thank you to Quest Tours and Jayne for inviting me to experience Humpback Whales like this. I know everyone says these are “once-in-a-lifetime” opportunities, but they truly are. You can’t predict nature and to have had the experiences I did during the week I spent in Tonga, will stay with me forever.
To Pillar and Vili for being the best skipper and whale guide – we could not have had better encounters than we did during that week and this, of course, thanks to you both. A big thank you to Ellen, Rachel, Melinda and Mark who I got to share these marvellous encounters with. As always, thank you again to OWUSS, Rolex, TUSA, Waterproof International, Reef Photo & Video, Nauticam, Light and Motion, DAN, PADI and Mako Eyewear.
My next experience will take me to Papua New Guinea to stay and dive at Walindi Plantation Resort with Max and Cecilie Benjamin, as well as work with local marine conservation group Mahonia Na Dari.
