The two adult humpback whales were launching themselves off the back of the waves and and doing some epic sized splashes. Photo / Chris Sheath CS Imagery
The two adult humpback whales were launching themselves off the back of the waves and and doing some epic sized splashes. Photo / Chris Sheath CS Imagery
Two adult humpback whales put on an epic display of whale acrobatics as the duo leapt, barrel rolled and splashed their way along the Northland coastline.
The whales were spotted off Tutukaka Coast by residents about midday on Monday who then alerted the team at Dive! Tutukaka.
Dive instructor Chris Sheath was on a day off but quickly got six others to join him out on the ocean in search of the impressive creatures, just after midday.
One of the humpback whales in a barrel roll, a gigantic rotation which exposes the white underside. Photo / Chris Sheath CS Imagery
Leaving the Tutukaka Harbour the team headed north and it was only a matter of minutes before they found the whales.
"We didn't know exactly where they were but then we saw them breaching in the distance," Sheath said.
They made their way towards the whales and anticipated their path as they swam north.
"We got ahead of them and kept our distance and then they swam and breached right in front of us."
Originally from Manchester in England, Sheath, a keen photographer, had his camera with him and took some spectacular photos of the 30-tonne animals launching themselves into the air before slamming back into the sea.
"It was an amazing experience. I've worked here for five years now and this is the first time I have seen a display like this. They were really putting on a show for us."
The two adult humpback whales were launching themselves off the back of the waves and and doing some epic sized splashes. Photo / Chris Sheath CS Imagery
After the spectacular display the whales continued north in the rough seas.
Also watching the whales closely was Dr Ingrid Visser, but this time from her land-based Orca research centre on the coast, because the sea conditions prevented her from launching.
Visser said it was at this time of year the whales were making their way north to breed in warmer tropical South Pacific waters around Niue, Tonga and Noumea and Fiji as well as waters near Raoul Island in the Kermadec archipelago north of New Zealand.
It was likely they had come from feeding grounds at Antarctica where they had spent months gorging on krill to get fat before undertaking the journey to the tropics to mate and give birth.
Humpbacks are baleen whales belonging to the group Mysticeti — whales which feed by straining small fish and crustaceans from seawater through hundreds of springy plates in their mouths made from keratin, the stuff of hair and fingernails.
"They can put on some quite exuberant displays because they are nice and fat and feeling great after feeding down south," Visser said.
"This was a spectacular display on a rough day that made it even more dramatic. The two adults were launching themselves off the back of the waves and doing some epic sized splashes."
She said the ocean inside the Poor Knights Islands was a no-go zone for ships, making it an acoustic quiet zone for whales, dolphins and other sea creatures.
"It's a nice quiet place for them to spend time and while these two whales were passing through, they looked very comfortable in their environment."
