Nature & Environment

Kayaker comes across humpback whale that appears frozen in place

By T.K. Randall
August 14, 2023

Image: Jumping Humpback Whale
Credit: Zorankovacevic / CC BY-SA 2.5 (adapted) While finding a whale in the waters off the coast of Australia might not seem particularly unusual, you've probably never seen one quite like this before.

When Moss discovered what looked like a whale's tail suspended out of the water while paddling in his transparent kayak recently, he couldn't quite believe what he was seeing.

The tail seemed to be frozen in place - almost like a glitch in a video game.Using an underwater camera, he was able to record footage of the whale itself which seemed to be sitting upside-down in the water, motionless, with just its tail protruding from the surface.

"What is it doing ?" he pondered in the video.

It turns out that what he had found was a whale engaging in a very rare activity - tail sailing - which still remains something of an enigma but could be aimed at helping the whale to cool down.

You can check out the full encounter in the video below.


Source: Science Alert

Tags: Kayak, Whale