A Mother Humpback and Her Baby

March 14, 2025 

One morning, as we spent our time surfing, swimming, and playing at the beach, we were given quite the show by a mother and baby humpback whale.  They were just out from the anchorage, and they breached and played their way together across the whole bay. 

It was a beautiful sight, but it was not until later that day that the show got even more spectacular.  It was around 1pm when we were kayaking that the large mother humpback whale and her small calf came close to us. 

At first we did not notice them as the mother was simply floating almost motionless at the waters surface, but then the baby began to play right around the mother.  Around and around it went, spy hopping, tail slapping, and fin slapping all while the mother lay motionless. 

We worried at first that the mother was hurt, but I assume it was just trying to rest, as it seemed fine later.  Very infrequently the mother would raise slightly, breathe, and sink back to her near water-level relaxed state, all while the baby frolicked around giving us quite the close up show.  Then a panga came from the distance and they both sank below the surface, presumably because of the sound of the outboard. 

A while later, after the motor sound was gone, they reappeared in almost the same area, but the playfulness of the baby was finished. 

A few hours later, however, we spotted the mother and baby once again only about 200 feet away from our boat. 

The baby appeared to be nursing as the mother was once again floating at the surface, but the baby would come up to breathe and then disappear for a little while, then back up to breathe, and back down it went, over and over. 

Finally when it was full, or feeding time was over, it was play time again and as they slowly swam out of the bay the baby breached over and over following along behind.  It was a very special day.