Playful Whale Calf Gets Curious About Human Company in Polynesian Waters

An Australian videographer who enjoyed a diving experience with friends in Tonga back in 2019 has shared closeup footage he captured when a curious whale calf approached them. The stunning footage, by Dylan deHaas, shows the young mammal swimming upside down near the group. DeHaas told Storyful that the group were snorkeling on a reef when mother and calf came up to them. He said that the mother kept her distance, but that the calf was "just so, so, so curious!" "He came up multiple times," he said, "stopping still in the water, just looking upside down and playing with us. It was absolutely incredible." DeHaas added that the encounter ended when the calf, which was "a bit excited," crashed through the divers while trying to play. "Mum saw this and wasn't too happy," he said, "so after that she came and got the calf, then swam away with him giving one last look, as he was under mom's fin." DeHaas, who is a keen diver, told Storyful he's spent a lot of time in the ocean, swimming with whales, sharks, dolphins, and sea lions, but that this experience "[topped] it all." "It will stay with me forever," he said, "such a special moment in time." Based in Western Australia, deHaas https://newswire.storyful.com/?search_term=dylan%2520dehaas regularly documents the local marine life, and his encounters with friendly aquatic animals for his https://www.instagram.com/dylan.dehaas/ Instagram account. (Footage by Dylan deHaas/Storyful via Getty Images UGC)