Meet the Whales

Click to open the interactive version.

360° panorama by Richard Chesher.

Richard Chesher:

Every year, in July, the humpback whales Megaptera novaeangliae swim from Antarctic waters to New Caledonia. In September they swim south again. Like many visitors to New Caledonia, the whales come here to enjoy the warm springtime-like weather and to cavort in the world’s largest lagoon. Like many cavorting visitors, the main recreation is the mating game. That’s what is happening in this sphere image. Normally these big creatures swim alone or in small groups of two, sometimes 3 whales. But during the mating games other males come around and start showing off.

Freddy and I were sailing from Noumea to Ilot Mato yesterday. Very light winds, blue skies and calm seas – all very relaxing – until I heard a canon go off. Or at least that’s what I thought it was. It turned out to be a whale close behind us smaking his gigantic caudal fin on the sea surface. We were sailing very slowly, about 2 knots, and the whales were coming up behind us, heading in exactly the same direction. One of them – a male – kept smacking the surface of the sea. Two others were swimming side by side – one of them was longer than the Moira, our 14 metre sailboat, and probably weighing twice as much. The other was much smaller – I think it was a young one, perhaps only a year old. The surface-slapping male was coming very close to the pair and then moving off. Two other whales were nearby. There was also some interesting rolling going on with long pectoral fins swishing into the glittering sunlight and big whale bodies splashing against each other. [continued…]

Read the whole story on the panorama page (you will have to scroll down the page to see the story).