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Today's whalers arm themselves with Canons and Nikons to record their first encounters with these gentle leviathons, hoping for an acrobatic display they can enjoy now, and photograph for posterity. In small boats, spirits are high and camera buttons flicker as eager eyes watch the humpbacks frolic with their newborn calves in the tropical sea.
In May the whales first appear in Vava'u, where they birth, then train their next generation of calves how to survive the long trip homeward to Antarctica in early November.
