the abundance of humpbacks this season reflects ongoing strength in the recovery of the population.
Humpback Whales in Tonga
The 2014 humpback whale season in Tonga was for me, in a word, incredible. The best I’ve (Tony Woo) experienced to date.
Between 6 August and 25 September, I spent a total of 33 days on the water. During that time, I saw more activity than I can ever recall experiencing, characterised early on by a dense concentration of humpbacks in the inner waterways of the Vava’u island group.
There were so many whales in fact, that for the first week+ of my stay, I was unable to make it to open water outside the islands, as whales popped up all over the place, one after another, making it impossible to go too far.
Whales entered Neiafu harbour several times, twice that I saw: A six-whale heat run on 24 August that did an entire circuit of the harbour in the early AM, and a female with calf on 27 August. I know there were other occasions as well. While the presence of whales inside the harbour isn’t unprecedented (I’ve seen them there before), it’s certainly not a common occurrence, and it’s not something that one generally expects to take place several times in a season.
My calf count statistics for this season underscore just how exceptional the season was.
My calves ID-ed/ boat-day ratio, for instance, skyrocketed…
The high density of calves underscores the extraordinary humpback season in Tonga
Read More and check out the additional graphs and wonderful photos