Humpbacks off Punta Mita

Crickey! That’s the word that comes to mind when a 50-foot humpback whale weighing something like 40 tons comes flying out of the water right in front of you. Actually, I think crickey is the word Ty used. I said something more along the lines of Holy Shit!

I’ve spotted whales all over the world, from Maui to New Zealand, but I’ve never seen anything like the performance put on yesterday morning by a pod of tail-slapping, spy-hopping, lob-tailing males off Punta Mita in the Bay of Banderas.

photos by David Lansing

According to Ty, who is both a naturalist working for Punta Mita Expeditions and a professional nature photographer (check out some of her amazing shots of breeching humpbacks, spinning dolphins, and flying manta rays at Drifting Seas), we were in the middle of what is known as a competitive group of males fighting for the attention of a single female (who, as far as I could tell, was unimpressed by the boy’s theatrics).

These big ol’ bulls charged each other and you’d swear you could hear their massive bodies slamming into one another just beneath the surface. Sometimes a pair of big ol’ boys would come up out of the water together, their bodies wrapped around each other like football lineman right after the snap.

And the sounds they made. Not beautiful lilting sounds but more of a belligerent sound of underwater horns preparing for some great battle. Like this:  whale1

It was fascinating but also a little scary. I mean it was like being in the middle of a rugby scrum. I could only hope that while they were slamming into each other all around us that they were at least somewhat aware of the presence of our panga.

Very brutal in some ways. But god what a show they put on.