Swimming with a humpback whale

Through 11 days of searching for “good whales“ in Tonga, on the superb ship NAI’A, this short film shows highlights from our favourite in-water encounter of the expedition.  In perfect weather on Day #4, we came upon the perfect whale. For hours, the beautiful young female danced with us and around us, building confidence and curiosity in us to the point that we could have touched her— it was the full eyeball-to-eyeball whale encounter. The magic was over the moment when a herd of (what we assume were) h