Charged by Three Humpback Whales

I’ve seen some pretty amazing things underwater in my time, but having 3 whales charge at me underwater takes the cake.

In Tonga, you have to go with a registered tour company and SV Second Wind put us onto Ilena Whale Tours, which turned out to be an excellent recommendation. They picked us up off Voila at 7.15am and we headed north out of the lagoon.

We had a wonderful morning snorkelling with several humpbacks including a baby calf. We were in and out of the boat lots of times as the crew spotted the whales each time they moved. We were lucky enough to only have three paying guests on board, so plenty of space around to whales and in the boat.

After a magical morning, we took a short break for lunch, whilst we relocated inside the lagoon. The tour went all day, which made It excellent value for $550 Tongan a person (about $215US).

No sooner had we gobbled down lunch, it was back in the water for some more interactions.

We’d had a couple of attempts at swimming out to another group of 3 whales inside the massive lagoon, this group having a calf that was much younger than the one we saw in the morning. This group was on the move and by the sound they were making, I don’t think they appreciated the close attention. Our professional guides didn’t seem too worried and assured us that they had seen similar behaviours before and all was cool.

There were just 3 paying guests on board and by this stage Dee and Casper were cold and tired respectively, and had left me to it – so it was just me and our guide in the water.

For this particular attempt, our guide slipped in first and the captain ushered me in straight after. I barely had time to orientate myself next to the boat, when I looked up to see the baby swimming directly towards me on the surface, flanked closely by the two adults. And they were going at a fair clip with lots of foreboding sound effects. I hadn’t even had time to switch on my GoPro. I sort of froze, wondering what would happen next, as just at the last moment, the baby dove straight under me, followed by the two adults. If I had the capability to actually move at that point, I could have reached down and touched them.

Having somewhat regained my senses, I managed to flick on the GoPro and capture them passing directly under me, blowing heaps of bubbles, before they circled around the boat. From what I’ve read since, humpbacks blow bubbles underwater to coral krill, so maybe this was a way of protecting their small baby by scaring us off. My heart rate indicated a certain degree of success in scaring the bejesus out of me.

On reflection, my emotions were somewhat mixed as Dee and I were both a little disturbed for overly intruding into their space. So in the end it was exciting, somewhat frightening and a little disturbing. An experience that will stick with me forever.

Footage and editing by Dee.