Click photo to enlarge
This photograph of a curious southern right whale, taken by
American photographer Brian Skerry off the Auckland
Islands, won the Underwater World category in this year's
Wildlife Photographer of the Year awards.
American photographer Brian Skerry rates this meeting
with a southern right whale in New Zealand waters as "the most
incredible animal encounter" of his life.
Skerry photographed the bus-sized whale - 14m long and 70
tonnes - investigating his dive assistant after the men had
hitched a ride with a New Zealand research expedition to the
Auckland Islands, aboard the Dunedin-based yacht Evohe.
This photograph won the Underwater World category of this
year's Wildlife Photographer of the Year awards, the New
Zealand Herald noted recently.
The expedition leader, Dunedin marine biologist Dr Simon
Childerhouse, said that expanding southern right whale
numbers at the Auckland Islands were increasing the
likelihood of Dunedin and Otago people having their own close
encounters.
Mating activity involving four of the whales off Taieri Mouth
had been photographed by the Otago Daily Times in June last
year, and the whales could be seen in the Otago Harbour.
Southern right whales, New Zealand sea lions and fur seals
had been common on or near the New Zealand mainland coast
before whaling and sealing operations nearly drove them to
extinction in the 19th century.
After re-establishing themselves on the remote Auckland
Islands, about 600km south of Dunedin, the three species were
again returning to the mainland, Dr Childerhouse said.
Rough weather on the three-week trip to the Auckland Islands
during winter last year had made life tough for Skerry, a
National Geographic photographer, he said.
Every year, more than 200 southern right whales gather near
Port Ross in the Auckland Islands to mate and calve.
Skerry and his assistant had a Department of Conservation
permit, enabling them to swim near the whales.
"They're very agile for their size and very manoeuvreable.
They're comfortable in shallow water, whereas most whales
don't really like it," he said.
The "fantastic" photograph had highlighted the curiosity
shown by whales.
"We focus a lot on people going to look at whales but in this
[photograph] whales have come to look at us."
