40 Ton Humpback Whale Leaps Entirely Out of the Water!

[Neema]

26. AMAZING! It is such a profound thrill to witness that, like

winning the lottery. The first time we went to Maui, we did a sunrise whale watching trip. I'll never forget it because the captain of the boat said the whales in the area that morning were Blue whales. He then apologized and said that guests tend to be disappointed by Blue whales because they don't generally breach due to their enormous size. The most we'll see, he said, is the water spout and maybe a bit of the top of the body.

We did indeed see a spout a short time later, and even that was exciting. The captain started telling us about how large the Blue whale was under the surface and in relation to our boat, but that it's difficult to see. Just then, the whale actually breached! Not fully out of the water like this, but we saw a good portion of his body followed by a huge tale slap. It was absolutely awe-inspiring. The captain was stunned into silence for a bit, then started hooting and hollering with excitement. Back then I had a crappy camera so the shots don't look like much, but man the experience was mind blowing.

A couple days later we took helicopter ride and got to see a whole pod of Humpbacks from the air, that was mind-blowing as well.