While I was filming in the Azores in September 2004 under government permit with photographer Bruce Watkins, we chanced upon two calves alone on the surface waiting for their mothers to return from the depths. We stopped our boat well away from the calves, who were performing tail slaps and other surface behaviors. The larger of the calves left to rejoin its mother who must have been surfacing from a dive, but the other remained preoccupied with its antics.

I quietly slipped into the water first and moved very slowly toward the active calf until I could see it underwater. I stopped and remained motionless about 60’ from the calf. As soon as the calf saw us it turned to look at us and then rolled onto its back and swam very fast directly at me, opened and closed its mouth, and stopped just in front of me. The calf then spy hopped to look at me more closely and put its head against my hand, which I had taken off the camera to keep the calf from hitting it. It stayed next to me, rolling and inspecting me with each eye before moving off to join its mother. Through my 12 years of research with humpback whales and filming other whales (Sei, Gray, Fin), I have had many very special moments, but this brief four minute encounter is one of my most cherished.