Humpback whales must certainly be the showiest and most surface active whales of them all. We’ve seen them before breaching, tail slapping, spy hopping and, like this guy photographed in British Columbia, performing a peduncle throw. But what does all this show boating mean? Well, biologists around the world have come up with many explanations of what they think each behaviour means and of course each of them could be right or, they could be very wrong. Equally, each activity could have two or more meanings or just be what the whale decides to do at the time. It could be a means of communicating with other whales – for example I’ve certainly seen other humpbacks form up on a breaching whale and then feed as a group. These actions can also be a form of aggression and equally a method of defence, such as between battling males in the mating regions of Mexico and Maui for instance. But for those of us who just enjoy seeing them, their actions can often be a form of amazement and enjoyment and we can be left feeling very privileged to be able to see them for the very brief time they are with us at the surface.
