©Chris St Lawrence
September 17, 2025
Tails Up
- as seen by -
Chris St Lawrence
Only moments after we left port in Brooklyn, New York, on our whale watch, we began to see splashes on the horizon, just across the Lower New York Bay near the low-lying curling tip of Sandy Hook.
We arrived to find this young humpback whale, Megaptera novaeangliae, a recognized animal from the region, splashing up a storm. Breach after breach, the animal propelled itself out of the water, sending spray into the air. It surged through schools of Atlantic menhaden, mouth wide open, only to breach on top of the fish a few moments later. Once it seemed to have finished feeding, it rolled onto its back and went to town slapping its tail against the surface of the water.
Getting a photograph like this is difficult and depends on so many variables, but this time, all the cards aligned. The sun poked out from beneath some cloud cover and backlit the whale’s rambunctious splashing, giving these tail slaps a particularly moody look.
And even as we ran out of time on the water, the whale continued to frolic.
EDITOR’S NOTE: Check out the scientific and conservation efforts from WCS’s Ocean Giants team that are focused on better protecting humpback whales, critically endangered North Atlantic right whales, endangered fin and sei whales, dolphins, and porpoises throughout the New York Bight, including the Hudson Canyon.
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