Glimpsing Into The Lives Of Humpback Whales Off Tonga (PHOTOS)

Since 1998, I've spent hundreds of hours in the water with humpbacks, getting a first-hand glimpse into the lives of these magnificent 40-ton cetaceans. The whales arrive in the waters off the Kingdom of Tonga during the southern hemisphere's winter to give birth to and raise their babies, as well as to jostle for mating rights to produce future generations.

Over the years, I've been fortunate enough to observe many female whales and their just-too-cute babies, lovey-dovey male and female pairs engaged in elaborate and elegant courtship rituals, high-paced, hormone-fueled heat runs of multiple males competing for a single female and solitary males performing their melodic songs.

In 2008, I initiated a project to count and assign IDs to as many baby whales as possible each year, with the goal of documenting variations in the pace of humpback calf births each season. The good news is that 2011 is turning out to be a banner year, with nearly 40 unique babies identified already.

If a picture is worth a thousand words, what follows is a five thousand word essay about Megaptera Novaeangliae, one of my favorite animals.

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Tony Wu is an underwater photographer. Follow his adventures on his website or @TonyWu on Twitter