Kayaker catches glimpse at sea creature’s rare behavior, video shows. ‘Craziest thing’
.jpg "Brodie Moss was in Western Australia when he captured footage of the humpback “tail sailing,” according to social media posts.")
Brodie Moss was kayaking in Western Australia recently when he saw something in the distance: a whale tail.
But instead of disappearing into the surf, the humpback whale’s tail stayed straight in the air.
“My heart is beating so fast. I think that’s a whale tail,” Moss said in an Aug. 13 YouTube video posted to his account, YBS Youngbloods. “It’s just come up and stuck its tail up and it’s not going anywhere. I don’t even know what to say.”
As Moss backs away from the creature, drone footage shows a baby humpback circling the adult as it remains in the headstand-like position.
“This is the craziest thing that’s ever happened,” Moss said in the video. “Look at it, that’s a huge whale tail right in front of me!”
Moss said in an Instagram post he thinks the humpback was “tail sailing.”
“It’s really rare for humpbacks to do, rarely been captured on film and no one really knows why they do it,” Moss wrote. “Hopefully this footage will help understand it a little better.”
An underwater clip of the humpback shows the creature completely still in a vertical position as small fish and the humpback calf swim near it.
“This is the weirdest thing in the world, man,” Moss said in his video.“I don’t know what to say...speechless.”
Social media users reacted to Moss’ footage and encounter.
“Amazing sight,” one person commented on Moss’ Instagram post.
“That is so cool that you got to see that,” another person wrote on the post.
Several others suggested the whale was exhibiting humanlike behavior.
“He’s just doing some yoga, don’t judge,” one person commented.
“Maybe it’s like us when we stick a foot out of the blankets to regulate body temp,” another commenter said.
“Why do kids do handstands in the pool? Cause it’s cool to show off,” a third comment read
‘Tail sailing’
Experts don’t know much about tail sailing, but there are several theories about why humpbacks exhibit the peculiar behavior.
One hypothesis is that tail sailing gives mother whales a chance to rest while still watching their calf, Ed Lyman, resource protection specialist for the Hawaiian Islands Humpback Whale National Marine Sanctuary, told The Huffington Post in 2016. Another reason could be that the mother whale tail sails while she nurses.
Some studies have suggested the position helps whales cool down and regulate their body temperature, Lyman told the news outlet. Most likely, all three theories are a possibility.
“It could be resting, it could nurse its calf and cool off when its hot, all at the same time,” Lyman told the outlet. “It’s not one particular advantage or function, but a combination of all three.”
This story was originally published August 14, 2023 at 9:47 AM with the headline "Kayaker catches glimpse at sea creature’s rare behavior, video shows. ‘Craziest thing’."
