Swimming with Humpbacks

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Well last Thursday (14August) I took the plunge and decided to go on a whale swimming trip. Yep, Vava’u is one of the few places in the world you are allowed to go swimming with whales. It is tightly controlled here; you must use a licensed operator. I am not sure whether this is to protect the whales, swimmers or operators, though I suspect a bit of all three.





The main species of whale here is the humpback. These baleen whales get up to 16 metres, though usually a little less, making them moderate among the large baleen whales. This population summers in the Antarctic where they feed for 4 months of the year laying down the bubbler that they will need to migrate to Tonga and over winter here without eating. I couldn’t last that long without ice cream.



While in Tonga they give birth and mate, with all that is involved in premating. The mature males go in for singing, showing off their fitness through breaching and tail slapping and chasing each other and interested females.



The aim of the operators is to find a relaxed mother and calf who will let us dive with them or a single or pair of singing males, as long as they are not too deep. They do not want matting whales as this can involve lots of chasing and rough housing.



The next step was to choose an operator. I had been using Bulga Diving’s moorings and several people had gone on their boats and enjoyed themselves so I visited their office. Yep I was booked for a trip tomorrow.



What time do we need to be here to start? What? 6:45 in the morning? Oh well I can get up early when needed so; yep I will be here at that time.



Friday morning 5:30 and I’m awake. The alarm is set for 6 but still I am awake. Up at 6 and put breakfast on with a cup of tea (2 actually). Oh shit it is now 6:40 and I have not finished the first cup. I will just have to leave them behind (yep I did leave them sitting in the cockpit).



I jump into the dinghy and motor over to the landing stage. Motor I hear you say. Yep, I broke the rowlock a few days ago so have to motor everywhere now, bummer (more in the next blog on this).



I am there just before 7 so go time. What, some of the people are not here yet? This means that I could have drunk the teas after all.



Finally we are all here. We are a couple from Sydney who have at least one diving holiday each year and have already dived with the whales a few days ago, a couple from Italy and Brazil on his yacht, and two crew.



So we head out to start looking for whales. The path we took was very interesting as we were able to go over the shallow areas that Hakura and I will not go, so I am able to tick off a couple of channels.



Now begins the slow part, finding the whales. About an hour and a half later I called “Tharp’ she blows, 200 meters at 1 o’clock”. Yep I love calling out “thar’ she blows” when I see a spout (the water shot up by the outgoing breath of a whale). It was a mother and small calf.



After about 30 minutes of slowly following them around the crew decided that she did not wish us to get close so we headed off to another whale. I thought that they did a good job of not pushing her and just staying nearby.



All this time another boat from Bulga was next to a mother and calf that the operators had been swimming with for at least a week, if not two. The operators will share whales, even between companies, so everybody gets a chance to see the whales.



This whale was a mother and older calf. I suspect that they where the same whales I’d seen a couple of weeks earlier. She was very laid back while the calf was very playful. The mother was floating vertically in the water with her head down and the tips of the tail out of the water. Occasionally, about every 15 minutes, she would rise to surface to breathe than skink back down.



Some of the rules around swimming with the whales are: stay with the guide, stay on the surface and only 4 swimmers plus the guide in the water. This meant that for us one had to stay on the boat each time. I agreed to stay during the first swim, partly because nobody else seemed interested in staying.



Off they went and you could hear their excitement, even as we floated away. The calf seemed to think this was good fun too. It swam around checking out the new things in the water. Mum just stayed head down.



After a few minutes the calf started tail slapping, that is sticking its tail in the air and repeatedly bring it down on the water. This produces a big slash and is great to watch from the boat, and even more spectacular from the water though a lot more dangerous. I thought I would have some candidates to join my club of “hands up those who have been knocked out by a whale”. A couple of times the guide had to pull back a swimmer as the calf swam past.



Then it was my turn. With a nod from the guide I went over the side (note quite entry is best cause you don’t want to scare the whales with load splashes). Have I mentioned that this swimming occurs in the deeper waters between the islands? There is no way to see the bottom, however, everybody does it and there have been no issues so far.



The water was not very clear but as we swam closer to the whales, you could start to see the mother hanging there, motionless. She was very large and looked just like a humpback whale on TV, but heaps bigger and very grey.



Then the calf came into view. It was blacker and very active. It seemed to be curious about us, though it would have seen lots of divers in the past few weeks. Occasionally, it would dive down to be next to mum. It would stay for a few seconds then head back to swimming around her and us.



Typical, for me, I started to look at the water. It was full of plankton and little bits of grey flecks. I think that they were pieces of whale skin, as the skin sloughs off all the time.



We stayed with the pair for an hour or so, taking it in turns to be in the water. Everybody was enjoying themselves. The calf had stopped tail slapping and would swim behind mum then come out and head beneath the swimmers. A couple of times it came close enough to be touched.



I have been referring to the calf as “it” because we where not sure of its sex. Based on some photos we (Dr Geoff, Jo and me) thought it could have been a male, though I now think it was a female. This is based on the next calf we swam with, which I think was a male. Sexing whales is not easy as all the bits are inside the whale.



We finished when another boat arrived to have their turn. It was now lunchtime so we headed off to a sheltered spot behind an island. Then “thar she blows”. It was the first pair of whales, still not really interested a playing. On the trip to the island we saw several more big whales though none wanted to stop for us.



After lunch, we headed out to another mother calf pair who had been putting up with the swimmers from the other Bulga boat. This pair was just outside the northern entrance to Vava’u and this time the water was very clear though very deep. Boy, does my imagination work overtime in such places.



Anyway, I headed off in the direction of the whales. I could not see them or the guide but keep swimming. Slowly out of the depths I saw the mother. This time she was floating about 15 meters down laying flat. I looked up and there was the calf and the guide.



The mother had white patches on her flanks. She would stay down there for about 15 minuted, then very slowly rising to the surface. After a few breaths she skin back down again. She seemed in no hurry to go anywhere.



The calf was less active that the pervious one, though only by a few degrees. It would swim around the surface, then dive down to mum and stay beside or under her for a few minutes then swim back to the surface. Then it would swim around with us for a while before heading back own to mum.



This time, the bits of whale skin were a mixture of grey and white, thus I think I am right in calling them whale skin.



We headed back to Neiafu about 2 after a great day swimming with some very cooperative whales.





In situations like this I don’t take photographs, rather I just look and experience the event. This is because if I am taking photos, that is all I seem to be doing and usually they are not very good ones. I ask the others around me who are taking photos if I can have copies. To this end the photographs with this blog were taken by Dr Geoff and Jo Taylor and are much better than any that I would have taken. Thanks guys.

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