Eye Contact With a Humpback Whale

I’ve never seen anything like these photos before. In October 2024, Rachel Moore had a close encounter with a humpback whale in French Polynesia and took these photos of the whale’s eye. Moore wrote of the experience:

This moment of eye contact was beyond my wildest dreams. I’ve never encountered a whale like this one, and it was the most profoundly beautiful experience of my life.

Tragically, just a few days later, the whale was dead; she drowned after being struck by a boat. Moore’s photos and experience galvanized an effort to regulate a slow zone for large boats in French Polynesia during whale migration season, which became law late last year:

French Polynesia has just passed new speed regulations to better protect humpbacks during their migration. Vessels over 12 meters must now travel at 10 knots (12 knots max) within 1 nautical mile of the islands, helping prevent the kind of tragedy we never want to see again.

(via moss & fog)

• photography
• Rachel Moore
• whales