Humpback whale (with swimmers)

Megaptera novaeangliae

Port St. Johns, Eastern Cape, South Africa

Nikon F100, Provia 400, Nikon 80 - 400 VR

Humpbacks raise their lower bodies and slam their flukes into the water - known as lob-tailing.

Sometimes two males competing for a single female will engage in this practice as a form of real or ritualized combat.

At other times, as here, a single humpback will lobtail with no other whales in the immediate vicinity - perhaps as a means of communication.

Note the snorkellers in the water. I chose not to swim with this whale, but as soon as our people approached this whale, it moderated its lob-tailing and seemed to be very careful not to raise or drop its flukes in the vicinity of swimmers.