Oh, My very first encounter with Humpback Wales was off the Western coast of Australia back in 2017.

I'd never seen so many whales in one place.

I watched from the boat as whale after whale passed by,

greeting us with a puff of saltwater mist from their blowhole

as they surfaced briefly for air.

But the most spectacular site was seeing them launch themselves up out of the water,

arching their backs and then diving back into the waves.

In fact, the name Humpback comes from this exact arching motion

and the way it accentuates the hump in front of their dorsal fins.

Now our exact location was a Ningaloo reef which gets its name from the Aboriginal term for deep water.

I like to think of it as the Great Barrier Reef's little brother or sister

and just like its older sibling when it comes to biodiversity

the waters of Ningaloo are amongst the richest on the planet.

It also serves as a migration route, a superhighway, if you like, for humpbacks traveling up from Antarctica to the warmer waters of Southeast Asia.

And just like trucks on a highway, these beasts are fully fueled and don't stop for anything.

So there I was at the back of the boat

when out of nowhere came the loud and distinctive sound

of misty air rushing out of a blowhole.

The crew fell silent and we looked over to see not one, not two, but three humpback whales lying horizontally on the surface.

Everyone sprang into action.

It was a mixture of chaos and excitement.

Adrenaline pumping through our veins. Even the skipper of the boat looked stunned and that's when we knew we were witnessing something very special

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