Passengers on a weekend charter out of Queensland, Australia, were treated to a rare triple spyhop by humpback whales in a behavior that almost seemed choreographed.
The accompanying footage, captured by Blue Dolphin Marine Tours in Hervey Bay, shows the whales poking their heads out of the water moments before Capt. Peter Lynch predicts the event by announcing, “One, two, three… Spyhop!”
The company’s Facebook description reads: “Gold, Silver and Bronze for the Humpback Team. We were all a little excited at seeing the triple spyhop. We all had a great day.”
Lynch, owner of Blue Dolphin Marine Tours, told FTW Outdoors that from the vessel’s roof, “I could see them lining up and then they popped up together. [But] I wasn’t sure they would all come up like that.”
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Humpback whales are known to approach whale-watching boats in a behavior called mugging. Spyhopping affords the curious mammals a means of viewing their surroundings with their heads out of the water.
The behavior is fairly common, but a triple spyhop at almost precisely the same moment is not commonly observed.
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