Spy-hop

Gradually, spy-hopping humpbacks viewing whaling vessels became mating whales embracing in a double spy-hop.

Soon, a mother whale marked by nature with a white, iris-shaped star on her side and a calf with a matching star surfaced bear the bow of our boat where I was sitting. Then they popped up together in a dual spy-hop.

Humpbacks are known to spy-hop and are perhaps the most aerial of cetaceans.

It was once thought that they stood on their tails on the ocean bottom to do this, but grays have been seen spy-hopping in very deep water and obviously can spy-hop merely by treading water with their tail flukes.

Much of what these whales are doing eludes us. This became evident when I asked Payne whether we know why they spy-hop and breach.