I work for Dyer Island Cruises, Gansbaai, South Africa for some of the year and our main species of whale to watch is the Southern Right Whale that comes there to breed between about June and November. However sometimes we also have Humpback Whales around as they pass by the area. They are often mother and calf pairs and on one spectacular day in October 2018 we passed by an area called Danger Point on our way to the Southern Right Wales, with big swells running through. There we found at least three humpbacks breaching out of the swells and although we could only spend a few minutes there due to the crazy sea conditions, we got to see a mother and her new humpback calf breaching together.

This was so spectacular. Maybe a breaching lesson? I so wish we could have stayed longer but the boat was pitching and rolling and people were starting to look green very quickly! I did manage to snap a few quick photos and one had both the Mum and the calf out together.

In many thousands of whale watches this is only the second time I have seen a mother and calf jumping out of the water at the same time, and both of these trips were from South Africa.

-Judith