Cetacean photos

Southern right whale calf underwater, Eubalaena australis.
Species: Southern Right Whale, Eubalaena australis
Location: Puerto Piramides, Chubut, Argentina
Image ID: 38288  

Southern right whale underwater, Eubalaena australis, Patagonia.
Species: Southern Right Whale, Eubalaena australis
Location: Puerto Piramides, Chubut, Argentina
Image ID: 38367  

Portrait of a Southern Right Whale Underwater, Eubalaena australis.
Species: Southern Right Whale, Eubalaena australis
Location: Puerto Piramides, Chubut, Argentina
Image ID: 38387  

Portrait of a Southern Right Whale Underwater, Eubalaena australis. This particular right whale exhibits a beautiful mottled pattern on its sides.
Species: Southern Right Whale, Eubalaena australis
Location: Puerto Piramides, Chubut, Argentina
Image ID: 38391  

Portrait of a Southern Right Whale Underwater, Eubalaena australis. This particular right whale exhibits a beautiful mottled pattern on its sides.
Species: Southern Right Whale, Eubalaena australis
Location: Puerto Piramides, Chubut, Argentina
Image ID: 38393  

Southern right whale eyeballing the camera up close, Eubalaena australis. Whale lice can be seen clearly in the folds and crevices around the whales eye and lip groove.
Species: Southern Right Whale, Eubalaena australis
Location: Puerto Piramides, Chubut, Argentina
Image ID: 38400  

White southern right whale calf underwater, Eubalaena australis. About five per cent of southern right whales are born white due to a condition known as grey morphism and will gradually turn dark as they age. They are not albino (which is a complete lack of pigmentation). Sometimes referred to as "brindled", the white coloration is a recessive genetic trait and only lasts a few months. Typically, but not always, white calves will become much darker as they mature but will still be somewhat lighter than normal even as adults.
Species: Southern Right Whale, Eubalaena australis
Location: Puerto Piramides, Chubut, Argentina
Image ID: 38434  

White southern right whale calf underwater, Eubalaena australis. About five per cent of southern right whales are born white due to a condition known as grey morphism and will gradually turn dark as they age. They are not albino (which is a complete lack of pigmentation). Sometimes referred to as "brindled", the white coloration is a recessive genetic trait and only lasts a few months. Typically, but not always, white calves will become much darker as they mature but will still be somewhat lighter than normal even as adults.
Species: Southern Right Whale, Eubalaena australis
Location: Puerto Piramides, Chubut, Argentina
Image ID: 38438  

Courting pair of southern right whales underwater, Eubalaena australis. While the posture in this photo isn't quite mating, it is a courting behavior that often precedes mating. The male is below, upside down and trying to access the female belly-to-belly. However, the female does not want to mate, so she has positioned herself upside down at the surface so that the males in the courting group cannot reach her genital slit.
Species: Southern Right Whale, Eubalaena australis
Location: Puerto Piramides, Chubut, Argentina
Image ID: 38446  

South Pacific Humpback Whale Underwater, Moorea, French Polynesia.
Species: Humpback whale, Megaptera novaeangliae
Location: Moorea, French Polynesia, France
Image ID: 40662  

Portrait of an adult Southern Right Whale Underwater, Eubalaena australis, hovering over sand bottom on Golfo Nuevo, Peninsula Valdes. By permission of the Government of Argentina, Chubut, permit # 51 / 2025-SsCyA.
Species: Southern Right Whale, Eubalaena australis
Location: Puerto Piramides, Chubut, Argentina
Image ID: 41177  

Southern right whale underwater, Eubalaena australis, in Golfo Nuevo, Peninsula Valdes, Argentina. By permission of the Government of Argentina, Chubut, permit # 51 / 2025-SsCyA.
Species: Southern Right Whale, Eubalaena australis
Location: Puerto Piramides, Chubut, Argentina
Image ID: 41179  

Portrait of Mother and Calf Southern Right Whales Underwater, Eubalaena australis, hovering over sand bottom on Golfo Nuevo, Peninsula Valdes. By permission of the Government of Argentina, Chubut, permit # 51 / 2025-SsCyA.
Species: Southern Right Whale, Eubalaena australis
Location: Puerto Piramides, Chubut, Argentina
Image ID: 41183  

Southern right whale calf underwater, Eubalaena australis. By permission of the Government of Argentina, Chubut, permit # 51 / 2025-SsCyA.
Species: Southern Right Whale, Eubalaena australis
Location: Puerto Piramides, Chubut, Argentina
Image ID: 41184  

Closeup underwater view of a Southern right whale eyeball, Eubalaena australis. Whale lice can be seen clearly in the folds and crevices around the whales eye and lip groove. By permission of the Government of Argentina, Chubut, permit # 51 / 2025-SsCyA.
Species: Southern Right Whale, Eubalaena australis
Location: Puerto Piramides, Chubut, Argentina
Image ID: 41190  

Whale hair on the rostrum and chin of a southern right whale, sidelit by the setting sun. These individual hairs provide sensor information to the whale as it swims through ocean currents or touches the ocean bottom.
Species: Southern Right Whale, Eubalaena australis
Location: Puerto Piramides, Chubut, Argentina
Image ID: 38331  

Seagull picks skin off a southern right whale, leaving a lesion that may become infected and which scientists have shown to be stressful to young calves.
Species: Southern Right Whale, Eubalaena australis
Location: Puerto Piramides, Chubut, Argentina
Image ID: 38333  

Southern right whale raises its fluke tail out of the water prior to diving.
Species: Southern Right Whale, Eubalaena australis
Location: Puerto Piramides, Chubut, Argentina
Image ID: 38337  

Southern right whale fluke raised out of the water, tail slapping.
Species: Southern Right Whale, Eubalaena australis
Location: Puerto Piramides, Chubut, Argentina
Image ID: 38339  

Southern right whale raises its fluke tail out of the water prior to diving.
Species: Southern Right Whale, Eubalaena australis
Location: Puerto Piramides, Chubut, Argentina
Image ID: 38341  

Breaching southern right whale, Eubalaena australis, Patagonia.
Species: Southern Right Whale, Eubalaena australis
Location: Puerto Piramides, Chubut, Argentina
Image ID: 38405  

Adult male humpback whale bubble streaming underwater. The male escort humpback whale seen here is emitting a curtain of bubbles as it swims behind a female (left) during a competitive group. The bubble curtain may be meant as warning or visual obstruction to other male whales interested in the mother.
Species: Humpback whale, Megaptera novaeangliae
Location: Maui, Hawaii
Image ID: 02828  

Adult male humpback whale bubble streaming underwater. The male escort humpback whale seen here is emitting a curtain of bubbles as it swims behind a mother and calf. The bubble curtain may be meant as warning or visual obstruction to other nearby male whales interested in the mother.
Species: Humpback whale, Megaptera novaeangliae
Location: Maui, Hawaii
Image ID: 05925  

North Pacific humpback whale, escort in competitive group makes fast close pass.
Species: Humpback whale, Megaptera novaeangliae
Location: Maui, Hawaii
Image ID: 06057  

Courting group of southern right whales, aerial photo. Mating may occur as a result of this courting and social behavior. The white whale seen here is a serious player named El Copulador (the copulator) and is often seen in mating and courting groups of southern right whales at Peninsula Valdes. His light coloration is an indication that he was a white calf, but he did not darken as he aged in the way most white southern right whale calves do.
Species: Southern Right Whale, Eubalaena australis
Location: Puerto Piramides, Chubut, Argentina
Image ID: 38357  

Southern right whale mother and calf, aerial photo, Eubalaena australis.
Species: Southern Right Whale, Eubalaena australis
Location: Puerto Piramides, Chubut, Argentina
Image ID: 38385  

Southern right whale mother and calf, aerial photo, Eubalaena australis.
Species: Southern Right Whale, Eubalaena australis
Location: Puerto Piramides, Chubut, Argentina
Image ID: 38386  

Aerial photo of white Southern Right Whale calf with its mother. The mother is gray in color, rather than dark black, since she was a white calf herself and gradually darkened to gray as she matured. About five per cent of southern right whales are born white due to a condition known as grey morphism and will gradually turn dark as they age. They are not albino (which is a complete lack of pigmentation). The white coloration is a recessive genetic trait and only lasts a few months. Typically white calves become much darker as they mature but will still be lighter than normal even as adults. By permission of the Government of Argentina, Chubut, permit # 51 / 2025-SsCyA.
Species: Southern Right Whale, Eubalaena australis
Location: Puerto Piramides, Chubut, Argentina
Image ID: 41180  

Aerial photo of Southern Right Whale Mother and Calf. Golfo Nuevo, Peninsula Valdes, Argentina. By permission of the Government of Argentina, Chubut, permit # 51 / 2025-SsCyA.
Species: Southern Right Whale, Eubalaena australis
Location: Puerto Piramides, Chubut, Argentina
Image ID: 41181  

Aerial photo of Eight Southern Right Whales in a large Courtship / Mating Group at Peninsula Valdes, Argentina. Eubalaena australis. By permission of the Government of Argentina, Chubut, permit # 51 / 2025-SsCyA.
Species: Southern Right Whale, Eubalaena australis
Location: Puerto Piramides, Chubut, Argentina
Image ID: 41187