It's taken a while, but I just updated my humpback whale calf summary for 2009 with another baby whale...a little female named Haib.
Hugh Ross sent me the photos and other details for the ID late last year, but I wasn't able to review the information before heading out for the hectic travel schedule that I've had for the past six months or so.
In any case, now that I've had a bit of time to catch up, I looked through the images, and with Hugh's help, put together an updated humpback whale calf summary file.
It's a 42-page, 14.5MB PDF file, so it might take a while to download, depending on your connection. This is version 5 of this file. If you want to see the version history or read more background, click here.
I also updated the Google Map that I assembled of all the calf IDs to include Haib:
View Calf IDs Tonga 2009 in a larger map
Incidentally, Hugh named the baby whale Haib in honour of the guide on his boat, and he also named the mom Moa in honour of the boat captain.
According to Hugh: "Haib was extremely playful, Moa was somewhat reserved." He had five encounters with Haib and mom between the 13th and 20th of October, 2009, and during the first two encounters, there was an escort with mom and baby.
So that's 31 individually ID-ed baby humpback whale calfs for the 2009 season in Vava'u. Amazing, isn't it?
If anyone has any more, send 'em over!
And if you happen to visit Tonga this year, please remember to get good ID photos of any baby whales, their moms and any escorts for me. And please note down the time and place (with GPS coordinates if possible) of your encounters.