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Ubhejane — Leviathan
Published: 2010-08-18 20:48:55 +0000 UTC; Views: 1176; Favourites: 35; Downloads: 0
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Description
A humpback whale makes a dive in the deceptively deep waters of the Khutzeymateen inlet - the entrance to the Great Spirit Bear Rainforest. It lies on Canada's very north western coast; a hiccup in the coastline before the Alaskan panhandle.It teems with life - bears, huge fish, eagles and - of course - a plethora of whales. In the summer months humpbacks like this one sit at the entrance to such fjords and feed on the huge supply of copepods the congregate at the marine interface.
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Comments: 24
Awesome photo. Humpbacks are such beautiful whales.
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Oh wow, it must be such anawesome experience to see a gigantic animal like this from so close.... I would love to go whale-watching one day! You have captured a lot of detail in this picture, it's wonderful
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The skin surface and the dorsal fin of this humpback definitely look quite distinctive. Would make for a perfect photo ID, even if the tail flukes are a normal part of the photo ID for the humpbacks.
Great capture! Excellent balance between the open waters and the forest in the background. One hundred percent clarity, as well!
Did you 'point and shoot' this one?
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hi - actually i did quite a bit of photo ID work in the past with humpbacks - we found that we rarely needed fluke shots (we got skin samples for genetic confirmation - which is far more reliable than the frankly pointless photo ID exercises that everyone seems to do these days).
thanks a lot - i like this shot; it's a shame i had my uber telephoto lens on as i would have liked to have captured a little bit more either side, but never mind - i guess whales are big by their nature
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The skin surface and the dorsal fin of this humpback definitely look quite distinctive. Would make for a perfect photo ID, even if the tail flukes are a normal part of the photo ID for the humpbacks.
Great capture! Excellent balance between the open waters and the forest in the background. One hundred percent clarity, as well!
Did you 'point and shoot' this one?
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Me and mother hope to go see them sometime soon. They are truely something of stunning beauty. I wish I could pet one, they look so soft. 
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heh well good look with seeing them - though i can tell you they're less soft and a lot more rubbery 
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I was told they were both. XD You were able to feel one? I know sometimes they stick their chin up out of the water next to a boat out of curiosity. I'm willing to pay anything to dive with them, or snorkle at least. When they come to warmer waters, of course.
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i have done much work on cetaceans - usually at sea, and a occasionally from a medical perspective. i really wouldn't advocate touching them at sea - diving and snorkelling; i'm pretty sure that's illegal in canada at least, america maybe not but it's probably not a good idea. it would be impressive though.
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I've seen many programs where you can peacefully dive with them in Hawaii and in California, you must have a diver's permit of course, and must stay back about 100 meters from them. Rules are of course, let the Whale come to you only if they want to and no chasing, same with dolphins, one fool did that to a male Humpback during breeding season, and he nearly lost his head because the bull became irritated at his persistance and swiped at him with his tail. Then there were three people who barged in on a mother and calf. The calf panicked when they got too close and touched it, sending the mother into a fright out of her nap and she slapped them with her tail, knocking one girl unconscious, breaking the man's leg, and sending the third woman out of the water by 30 ft. It's their own fault, of course. Others like the people who worked on filming the TV show Life, they leave the Whales alone. The only time one of the Whale's were touched was when a calf decided to use the camera man as a plaything and pratically ran him over.
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well i've never seen the program life but it sounds like it's something i need to look up. is it an american program?
i think my closest call has been running over a humpback in a skiff - it was unavoidable as it decided to surface right in front of our boat. the whale didn't really care but we nearly wound up with a broken boat in the middle of nowhere!
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[link]
Here, it's a trailer for Life. 
Oh wow, that's gotta be scary. The closest encounter I've had with a Whale, well, Killer Whale was we were Whale Watching and a young male Orca named Double Stuf approached and spy-hopped right in front of the boat to look me in the face. I didn't get chance to photograph him because a girls on the boat screamed out of excitement and chased him away. - -;;;
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ah looks good will have to try and get hold of a region 2 version of the dvd if i can. my favourite wildlife shows are the blue planet and planet earth - not sure if they made it to the US, but they're *epic* BBC programs that captured incredible things. apparently they're making a new one not sure what it's called though.
yeah i've found it best to avoid the commercial boats as the majority of people on them either don't appreciate exactly what they're looking at, or make far too much noise. small zodiaks are the way forward
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They have made it to the US, they've been here for quite some time. Planet Earth was stunning, and they replay Blue Planet here alot. Of course I'm a fan of David Attenborough, there's just no other narrator for the job.
Mm, yeah people kept getting in the way when I tried to take photos of them. I felt like saying "If you're not here to take photos, get out of the way for those that are." Alot of people didn't seem interested in them either, one woman was reading a bloody book. 
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