Pilot whales, Humpbacks and Dolphins.

Last week, I had the amazing fortune of photographing pilot whales in the Pacific deep blue. The pod was generous and I was able to take this picture on my second drop in, and it was extraordinary. I had been in the water with them in the Kingdom of Tonga, several years ago. During my first experience with them, they were hunting and pelagic sharks were in tow. At that time, I was struck by their incredible grace and linear swimming. They passed by in rows, their dark skin was a sharp contrast against the Tongan clear blue waters.

The picture below is from my most recent Hawaiian encounter just a few days ago. I love this picture because it shows how much their skin shins and reflects light. 

This time they were traveling, but curious. They bobbed their heads to the surface and spy hopped for several minutes before I was in the water with them.  

These gentle beauties are residents of the local waters. Their scientific name is Globicephala. They survive primarily on squid and are thought to dive deeper during the night. They tend to travel in pods and like orcas have a matrilineal family structure. 

What I love about documenting cetaceans in the wild, is observing how their tales move through the waters as they swim on the surface, how they travel in pods and observing their incredible navigation from the depths of the ocean to the surface of the sea. 

Below is humpback tail taken at the surface, spinner dolphins swimming in pods along the bottom and a beautiful bamboo trunk, the ridges that remind me of the formation of a dolphin pod.

Each time that I enter the ocean with my camera, my curiosity and desire to learn more widens. I fall in love again, each and every time. Below is a magical tide pool filled will colorful coral and delicate yellow and black fish called Hawaiian sergeant fish, these beauties reminded me of the coherence in nature, repeated patterns and the delicate and elegant natural language that we speak with one another through our physiology. 

In the next year, I am refining and editing my photographs to create a book that has been asking to be printed. It has been over ten years that I have been documenting the seas and observing mother nature's grace while trailing behind countless cetaceans. 

I am grateful to everyone who takes the time to read my posts and support my underwater work. As the days grow longer and the local waters begin to warm, I am eagerly expecting the return of cetaceans to the East End.