Stand by to ram!

That could well have been the motto of the last couple of weeks - our encounters with animals in the water were just incredible.

The whale season started off really well and it is great for us to see the positive development of the Humpback population in Ha'apai itself and also the calves' progress over the weeks. We witnessed a few training sessions with mothers demonstrating breaches, tailslaps or spyhops and the babies copying them and our hydrophone is providing evidence that the calves' vocal expression is improving, too. It is funny to hear their high-pitched off noises when they first try to imitate mum's voice, but already after a few minutes it sounds like a perfect baby version of the adult. For the first time we've also seen a subadult whale play with a palm frond, which indicates a high level of cognition and intelligence. On this note we have contacted the Marine Mammal Behavior and Cognition Lab in the USA and are starting collaboration with them on the topics social behaviour and communication.

Some of the numerous swims we already had this year were totally out of this world. Despite some of the calves being only about 4 weeks old, most mothers seem to be extraordinarily confident and relaxed around our boat Malolo and proudly show off their offspring and let them observe us. On a few occasions the calves got a bit excited with us in the water and we actually had to swim backwards to get out of their way. Neither us nor our guests are likely to ever forget these eye-in-eye moments.

A Humpback calf diving underneath the snorkelers

Mum and calf showing flukes

A playful calf making a close approach

Baby coming for a look

Other exciting moments were swimming with dolphins for the very first time in Ha'apai. The Pacific Spinners we get here are usually very skittish and only stay with the boat for a few seconds riding in the bow waves. Only this week we managed to slip in the water as about 20 of them stopped beside the boat. They kept their distance, but it was a fantastic experience nonetheless.

On Friday we were happy to see a Great Hammerhead Shark again at Blake's Reef. It seemed to be smaller than the first one we'd seen a few weeks ago, so we hope that there might be a small resident group living around Blake's.

With so many beautiful wildlife encounters only in August we are looking forward to the weeks ahead of us. It can only get better!