The Whales

In July of 2017 I embarked on a journey to photograph the whales in Sydney. Noting could prepare me for the wonder and delight that I was to witnessed as i saw these gentle giants in light so to speak.

As I was photographing these gentle giants of the high seas, I wondered to myself’ How could man kill these harmless creatures ?” Sadly in some parts of the world they still do and yet for all of the products that are made from the whale, all of it can be done from man made alternatives.

Why Japan insists that it needs to kill these wonderful creatures is beyond me.

I spent 5 days with the giants of the deep and one of these days  was in wet conditions and that waters were rough  and yet this was still amazing time. To see the whales breaking through the water with no effort.

22,000 whales migrating form the deep south to the warmer waters of northern Australia is a sight to behold.

On the boat, no matter what age, no matter what race or gender, all were inspired by these wonderful creatures. Nature either divides people or it brings people together in the most powerful way. This was the case here. I did 5 trips and there were so many different races on board and we were all inspired and just loved seeing the gentle giants of the deep blue sea.

The only time that these creatures are aggressive is when the males are smashing into each other to win the right to mate with the female.

The scratches that you see on the whales when they breach are from the barnacles that are on the whales and when they hit each other the barnacles scratch into their flesh.

The other interesting thing about the humpback whale which is what is featured here in these pics, is that their tail is their finger print. No tail is the same and the underside is there finger print and it is the only way that they can be identified, out side of any other physical defects etc.

The Humpback is well-known for its songs which are often heard during mating season when groups of male whales sing in order to attract a female to mate with.Once they connect, a wonderful waltz takes place and she will stand upright as she swims around her singing his song to her.

Due to their large size the sounds these amazing whales make can be heard many kilometres away  and these come across as moans, howls and cries among other sounds which can go on for hours at a time.

We had the opportunity to hear these as it was awesome to hear these creatures when we couldn’t see them.

The physical size an adult humpback whale can grow to an average length of 18 metres long and weigh as much as 44 tons.

 The largest one ever recorded is a staggering 27 metres and they may even be some that are longer than this as this is one that has been seen. What about those who haven’t been seen?

In order to navigate the ocean these gentle giants of the seas   possess a large fluke and unusually long pectoral fins (about 1/3 the length of its body) which it uses for swimming, turning and propelling itself through the water.

Humpback whales have a pretty diverse diet feeding on small fish,krill,salmon, marckerel and other small fish.

Waiting for that moment is epic as the adrenalin is pumping and when that moment presents itself, the finger is pressed down on that shutter and the 10 frames a second is ticking over. … to be continued