Swimming with Whales

If you had asked me, "What is the coolest thing you've ever done?" a few years ago, I would not have had a proper answer. After traveling to Tonga, I can tell you I would have an answer to that question. The coolest thing I've ever done is swim with humpback whales.

As I wrote in my previous blog post, humpback whales come to Tonga between the months of July-October to breed and have their young in the protected waters. Humpbacks make the migration from Antarctica to Tonga to find protection in the shallow waters surrounded by coral reefs.

Humpback whales have become my favorite marine animal and I made it my goal to see one during my time in New Zealand. Sadly, I never got to see one IN New Zealand, but I sure got to see them in Tonga! Seeing 9 humpbacks the first day and 14 the second day was a pretty incredible step up.

The most amazing part of our Tonga trip was our third day in Tonga - July 19, 2019. And boy oh boy were the humpbacks out and ready to play that day. We saw whales right away, and not only did we see their tales, humps, and footprints like we did the day before, we saw them breaching over and over. Breaching is when the whales fantastically throw their 25 ton bodies out of the water in majestic play. And wow is it a sight to see. The fact that humpback whales are so playful and breach so often is why humpback whales are my favorite.

Jack got some incredible shots of these beauties breaching. All photos on this page are courtesy of Jack Cotter :).

This particular whale we watched breach 19 times!! Absolutely incredible.

You can tell how huge and incredible they are by the huge splash they create when they hit the water.

One of the coolest things I witnessed was a whale completely breach his entire body out of the water, straight up, tail and all. We saw over a dozen different whales breaching. There was one point we were watching a mom and calf and just to the right of us there were two other humpbacks playfully breaching again and again. It was hard to know where to look!

The opportunity to swim with the whales arose while we observed the mother and calf I mentioned above. They were seeming pretty cruisy and our guide Fiona told us to get our gear on and get ready to enter the water. I cannot describe to you how I felt in that moment. I was so overwhelmed with joy and excitement I was ready to burst into tears. The only reason I stopped myself from crying was because I didn't want to fog up my mask lol.

(You can see the baby hump on the left and the mama's hump on the right. Look at the difference in the size of the humps! )

We waited for what seemed like an excruciating long time. Fiona wanted to observe the mom and calf and make sure it was safe for us to swim with them and that the mom and calf would be okay with having us in the water with them.

It was heartbreaking, the moment Fiona told us we weren't going to get in the water with them. The mom and baby swam a bit away and she decided their behavior told us they didn't want to swim with us. I was absolutely devastated. I was brought down from an extreme high of adrenaline and excitement to pure disappointment. I got the sinking feeling that that was our only chance to get to swim with whales and that moment was gone.

We saw a few more whales that day and I was trying to stay positive, but the day kept ticking away. After lunch, we didn't see any whales for about 3 hours. It wasn't looking good for our last chance to swim with them.

Then when just about all our hope was lost and we were heading back to Uoleva Island, we happened upon another mom and calf. The calf was having the funnest time playing around and flicking his tail around on the surface of the water (I have a great video of this which I'd love to show you!). Fiona said, "Alright guys this is it. Get ready to get in the water!" The excitement kicked in again and I put on my mask, snorkel, and fins. We were meant to enter the water quickly and quietly and just as I was about to get in Telfie whispered to me, "Swim fast. Really really fast!" And that is exactly what I did. I'm not a great swimmer, but at that moment I felt like I could swim faster than I've ever swam in my life.

I swam and swam. And suddenly there he was. The baby calf, right in front of my eyes. I froze. I took in the wonder of this moment. Here I was in the water with this magnificent creature. So majestic, graceful, and beautiful. The whale was only in my line of sight for a few seconds, but I'm telling you those were the most incredible seconds of my life. I just got to see a humpback whale in its full beauty under the water!! From never seeing a humpback whale before just 3 days previous, this was an incredible moment. I am constantly in awe of wonder of God's beautiful creation. The way he designs such beautiful creatures has me on my knees in awe. I thank you Lord for this opportunity to do the coolest thing I've ever done in my life.

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