It's very rare to observe wales from a boat and rarely in the water in the world but the French Polynesia is a magic territory for that. Indeed, September to December the humpback wales come to us.
To give birth and breed. This "little sissy" prefer our clear and warm water for the education of the baby! Please note i said baby, but you still have the real proporions. Our baby weighs is 1 or 2 tons at birth and measure 12 to 15 feets.
After 3 month of migration, about 6 000 km the humpback are here. Once there, they don't feed but give birth and feed the baby. This one drink 500 liters of milk per day and double is weight in 2 weeks. The baby become independant 4 years later. You should know that a wale is pregnant each 3 or 4 year and take care of this one especially the first critical year. It's during this year that the mother learn to him how to breath and how to eat. It's not uncommon to see a mother helping his son to breath, or being inside our lagoon, teaching to him to "weave" between the shoals.
The wales are very afectionate toward their baby and very protective. They will let you know if you are too close! Kindly of course. They are looking to get away or they will make a small gesture of the fin to say stop. During they stay with us, you can enjoy many of their game. One of their favorite is jumping. You would think they make up competition, as the Olympic Games.
Some of them are completely out of the water. Imagine the strength it must have to propel themselves out of the water. If conditions permit we jump into the water to join them. It is not uncommon to hear them singing. Only male. They with each other or call the females for breeding because of French Polynesia is also the place where whales mate. If the female is fertilized, she moved to 11 months of gestation.
They are a little bit far from orphans: coasts, but approaches it sometime. However, for the lucky, may appear, the delight of divers !