Once heavily hunted, humpback whales that feed on krill have made a comeback in Antarctic waters.
Eagles soar overhead and humpback whales put in an appearance in summer, joining orcas, dolphins and seabirds.
The silent boats allow kayakers to paddle into kelp beds to watch humpback whales feed and seals frolic.
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Here, humpback whales frolic for much of the winter months and four species of dolphin can be seen year-round.
Between June and November, humpback whales congregate in Tonga to mate and breed.
Two companies in town offers tours in search of these peaceful creatures, spying minke whales, humpback whales and sometimes blue whales.
While fin and humpback whales have seen gains in population since the 1990s, the number of blues has declined or remained flat.
These are cool tropical islands where humpback whales calve in the winter, and where, in some places, one can feel like the only visitor that ever ventured this far.
"Although the elephants and the humpback whales and polar bears are the animal stars, the other big star of the movie is the earth -- the planet itself, " said Fothergill.
Populations of humpback whales (Megaptera novaeangliae) were seriously depleted by commercial whaling but have been protected in most areas for the last 50 years, and most populations are growing.
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The peninsula is a haven for wildlife: humpback whales in the crystal blue water, elephant seals beached on Pleneau Island, squawking adelie, chinstrap and gentoo penguins, and wheeling cormorants, petrels and terns.
With other Explorers Club members, Bennett has traveled to Hawaii to study humpback whales, to Madagascar to catalog the island's flora and fauna, to Mount Kilimanjaro for a bit of bioprospecting, and to Easter Island for an archeology project.
Look, I know there are going to be a few defensive headphone-wearers out there who claim that they never crank the volume, and only listen to soft Ray LaMontagne or humpback whales, and can hear the traffic all around them.
The Navy disputes his assessment, saying this year's humpback whale season was normal, and more whales than ever before were seen in March 1998, when biologists studied humpbacks' response to the Navy's Low-Frequency Active Sonar (LFAS) equipment in Hawaiian waters.
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