I have been beyond blessed with extraordinary experiences and wildlife encounters in my life...but this might take the cake.
This baby humpback sought us out, came right over and engaged myself (patterned suit) Carolina (short suit) Kat (solid blue suit) in play. We watched the baby and mother nap and rise to breathe for two hours. They would surface with closed eyes, take their breaths and fall back to the bottom. She can hold her breath 20 + minutes but mini whale needs to breathe every five minutes or so. Then he/she (I need to look more closely) surfaced awake... beautiful sentient, curious eyes wide open...came right to us and decided we were his new playmates. The best and truly only way to have animal encounters is to observe, enjoy their presence and be respectful of space... but when a wild animal seeks you out to engage and play it’s the greatest feeling ever. I cried in my mask. Watch the nuances of his behavior...We mimic each other’s movements, he turns towards us to see what we are doing next, he moves his body in similar movements to ours and vice verse, at one point he gets really excited and flips his tail playfully in our direction and then wonders why we backed off. Then his mama rises up from the deep and dwarfs this little sea muffin who dwarfed us. Moorea you have my heart. A huge thank you to Moorea Blue Water for this video and for being a true waterman. Magnificently all of our cameras went down right before this and we were simply playing completely absorbed in the moment... and Patea captured this.