The Fluke Slap – lifting the tail flukes out of the water and slapping them down on the water surface is a wonderful behaviour to watch and very noisy to hear! All the humpback whale animals within a 2-3 nautical mile radius can hear this racket. Biologists believe the acoustic component of fluke slapping is an effective means of communicating between and within pods.
Thwack! Down on the water the flukes go!
This on the downward stroke…
And this is on the upward stroke!
Another little fluke slap, more like a fluke flick.
Look at the waterfall of water. Love these fluke waterfalls!
This cow is doing an Inverted Fluke Slap!
We just caught the tips of these flukes as the whale slapped the edges down.
This is really a peduncle slap, the sideways thrust of the caudal peduncle onto the water surface. It’s altogether splashy!
This little calf we named Reef fluke-slapped at least 25 times!
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