Humpback whales play with free-divers

Please register or login

Welcome to ScubaBoard, the world's largest scuba diving community. Registration is not required to read the forums, but we encourage you to join. Joining has its benefits and enables you to participate in the discussions.

Benefits of registering include

  • Ability to post and comment on topics and discussions.
  • A Free photo gallery to share your dive photos with the world.
  • You can make this box go away

Joining is quick and easy. Log in or Register now!

paulmila

Registered
Messages
53
Reaction score
0
Location
Carle Place, New York
# of dives
200 - 499
Hi All,

A press release about an amazing encounter in Tonga, where humpback whales played with free-divers and then attempted contact, was recently sent out.
The link is: Humpback Whale Encounter Captured On Video Author/Photographer Releases Amazing Humpback Whale Encounter to YouTube, Bypassing Traditional Network News Media

The release provides a youtube link showing a short clip of the encounter.

For further info feel free to contact me through this site of directly to paul@paulmila.com

Cheers & good diving!
Paul Mila
 
Amazing!
I had an experience similar but I was on a boat. I've been working/assisting a project here in Bermuda thats filming and researching the humpbacks and we had a whale stay with us for over two hours while we filmed on the boat and had someone filiming in-water, absolutly amazing. I would Love to hear more about it, have you filmed humpbacks before..??!!
 
Hi BDA,

I wasn't the videographer; that was Rob Barrel, owner of the NAI'A dive operation. I was taking still-photos. I can send you a couple if you'd like. Contact me directly at pjmila@hotmail.com and I will email them to your address.

Yes, I've been with humpbacks before, for a week in the Silver Bank, Dominican Republic. That was also free-diving & snorkeling. SCUBA is not allowed in a whale sanctuary, at least when the whales are around. Two reasons: they don't want a diver harassing a whale that doesn't want to interact, and two, in whale culture blowing bubbles can be an aggressive signal. As our captain explained, "trust me, you don't want to piss off a 50-ton whale!" Good advice!

We did SCUBA in Tonga when the whales were not around. We but we could hear them all around us, and they sounded close but we never saw them then. Spooky!
Cheers!
Paul
 
https://www.shearwater.com/products/teric/

Back
Top Bottom