I dug up a few images of humpback whales (Megaptera novaeangliae) from my archives recently. No particular purpose, just because.
This pair was engaged in courtship, the darker whale in the foreground being the female:
The above photo is from an extended encounter in 2008. The whales engaged proactively with us for hours. It was a beautiful experience. I was using a Canon 5D at the time, the original one, with a grand total 12.7MP (woohoo!) shooting at a maximum of 3fps. Quaint, no?
The next image shows an injured male calf with his mother in shallow water, followed by an escort and another male. There were more males in an extended line.
I documented this calf and his mother over a 33-day period in 2011. I first saw the calf almost immediately after he sustained serious injuries due to an attack of some sort (I'm guessing a pack of marine mammals). I watched as he recovered, grew in size and became healthy, playful and confident. I hoped for many years that I'd meet him again. I'd recognise the wounds easily. But I never did.
I did, however, meet his mother once more in 2014. She had a female calf at the time. She was comfortable with me from the first moments of our second meeting. I had a feeling about her, so I checked through records and confirmed that we had already met (and actually, spent a lot of time together). I'm not saying humpback whales can recognise people. That'd be silly, right? But I can say that she didn't bat a proverbial eyelash when we met again.
And finally, here is a photo of another male calf, this one having a blast while swimming with his mother:
My friend Douglas and I came across these whale when they were resting. We floated with them for a long time, the calf surfacing now and then to breathe and check us out. When the calf decided it needed morning exercise, the pair set off on a leisurely stroll. We swam alongside for something on the order of 30 minutes. I heard some commotion and lifted my head above water to see us completely surrounded by a dozen boats or more. Happy to share, I pointed into the water to indicate the position of the whales, which were still swimming—slowly and relaxed.
Then I noticed that people were stabbing the air, shaking their fists, screaming at the top of their lungs. When my ears cleared of water, I heard them condemning me as stupid swine of Chinese origin, whale-harassing scum.
We got out of the water, me befuddled. I confirmed with my French-speaking local friend what the beet-red people were screaming. We left, just as the dozen+ boats disgorged their passengers onto the whales, some still hurling insults.
I'm sure the whales were happy to have been rescued by such enlightened tourists.