Images of humpbacks mating finally captured
STAN GORTON
08 Sep, 2010 10:45 AM
NAROOMA photographer Jon Poyner has captured images of something never before seen. And that is humpback whales in the act of mating.
The photos were taken three weeks ago off Vava'u, an island that is part of the Kingdom of Tonga.
Jon was invited to participate by some whale researchers, whom he met after photographing some killer whales off Narooma last year.
He said the researchers found out about his abilities after seeing his photographs published on the Narooma News website.
"Tonga is one of the few places in the world where it is legal to swim with whales, although certain permits are still needed," Jon said.
"There are also very strict guidelines governing behaviour, such as number of people allowed in the water at any one time, etc.
You are not allowed to scuba dive - all activity in the water has to be by snorkelling."
It was an eventful trip, with Jon experiencing a 5.3 earthquake; witnessing a car bombing; and then running out of money, and having to live off chocolate bought for his wife, who never got to see it.
Jon feels that the whale watching is just as good here, if not better.
A couple of days after returning from Tonga his small tinny was surrounded by southern right whales off the Dalmeny headland.
The whales came right up under his boat apparently feeding on schools of small fish along with dolphins and amazingly also small bluefin tuna.
The advantage to Tonga, particularly for researchers, was the ability to get in the water with the animals, he said.
What Jon witnessed is called a "heat run", where as many as 40 humpback males chase down a female, and vie for the right to mate with her.
After the female chooses her mate, they usually swim off, and until now, humpbacks mating had never been witnessed, let alone recorded, he said.
The mating took place in a relatively shallow lagoon where he was able to get less than 10 metres from them, fixated by both the mating pair and a huge male located just underneath them.
He said that all the researchers who saw his images were surprised how the whales mated side by side and continued swimming, rather than belly-to-belly as traditionally was thought how it happened.
Swimming that close to the pod of whales meant their singing sent deep, intense vibrations through his body.
"It shook me like a loud speaker does at a concert and the deeper I went the more powerful it got, so that I thought my heart was going to stop."
Jon hopes that his photographs appear in more publications but already they have appeared in metropolitan papers around Australia.
{Editor's note: Jon has requested the photos not be published on this site as he is reserving the right to have them published elsewhere - but stay posted!}
A tour of Montague Island for Narooma business people
THE annual open day at Montague Island and whale watching trip organised by National Parks and Narooma Charters was a great day out as always.
Narooma Charters packed out both its Dreamtime and Sea Eagle vessels on Thursday with local business people whose clients and customers will potentially go out whale watching or to the island.
Discovery rangers Mark Westwood and Annette Turner and the crew on board the boats volunteered their time to put on the tours and those lucky enough to be invited along were not disappointed.
Skipper and owner Darryl Stuart said this was shaping up to be one of the best whale-watching seasons with large pods already off the island.
The whales came right up to the Dreamtime dousing the spectators with their hot breath and showing off as they swam around.
Once on the island, the visitors got to see the recently burned area and recent planting of native plants that were already thriving and that will block out the dreaded Kikuyu grass.
After having a cuppa to warm up on what was a chilly day, groups went up the lighthouse to check out the view.
Many of them had either never been to the island or had only done so decades ago, including Michael Stokes who spends his days looking at the island from his beachside café and how has started a whale sighting text notification system.
Narooma News
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