Male humpback whales looking for females SOUTH PACIFIC OCEAN THIS DIVER was astonished when a 27-metric-tonne Humpback whale went in for A HUG. Vid
Male humpback whales looking for females SOUTH PACIFIC OCEAN THIS DIVER was astonished when a 27-metric-tonne Humpback whale went in for A HUG. Video footage showed how 49-year-old Australian diver Erez Beatus was 150 miles offshore and just ten feet underwater when this giant of the deep came in to place its fins around him. Erez was just three feet away from the whale in the Pacific waters off the island of Tonga. The video was captured from a distance of 30 feet by Russian wildlife photographer Mike Korostelev using a Canon 5D Mark IV camera with Ikelite housing - waterproof case - and 8-15 mm lens. This group spent about six to seven hours in the sea for two weeks to be able to capture this beautiful interaction. ?I swim a lot with whales, but I love Tongan whales the most because they are more calm and curious as compared to humpback whales found in other regions,? Mike said. ?I was thrilled to capture these images and video. No matter how many times I encounter them, it is always a thrilling Tongan waters are mating and birthing grounds for this population of Humpback whales, who start to arrive there in June and stay in those waters till October. Humpback whales have the longest migration on the planet, covering a distance of as much as 5,000 miles of open ocean each year. They prefer cold water areas for feeding but shallow, warm waters like Tonga for breeding and calving. The humpback whale was declared to be an engaged species in 1988, and its status changed to ?vulnerable? in 2008. Today, this species is listed as ?least concern? by the International Union for Conservation of Nature Red List of Threatened. Since the implementation of the whaling ban, the humpback whale population in Tongan waters have slowly increased to over 1,500. ENDS
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Photo credit: © Media Drum World / Alamy / Afripics
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Keywords: divers, humpback, ocean, pacific, photographers, photography, underwater, whale, whales, wildlife
