An eco-tourism operator in Mexico recently captured rare footage showing blue whales breaking the surface while racing side by side in Mexico’s Sea of Cortez.
Blue whales, which can measure 100 feet and weigh more than 150 tons, are the largest creatures to have inhabited the planet. Though swift and powerful, they’re not often observed exhibiting such high-energy behavior.
“We were all stunned and excited, and knew what we were seeing was exceptionally rare,” Charlie Harmer, owner of Silver Shark Adventures, said of the mid-February encounter. “I still can’t believe it.”
On Friday, Harmer published another clip from the same day, showing a single blue whale in slow motion, breaching at 20 mph against a Baja California desert backdrop. (Video posted below.)
https://www.instagram.com/p/CMn24fgBCCi/
His Instagram introduction reads, ”A blue whale, the largest animal species on earth, exploding out of the sea like a submarine.”
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An apt description of a scene that reveals the immense power and majesty of a sleek mammal designed for seemingly effortless propulsion.
The footage was captured off Bahia de los Angeles, a vast biosphere reserve on Baja California’s eastern shore, about 400 miles from Southern California.
Harmer, whose company keeps a boat in the bay for seven-day adventures, said the two blue whales measured about 80 feet. The behavior might have been part of courtship, or merely competition.