4th Place, Novice DSLR

Sergio Nogueira Jr

"The Humpback and a Friend"

Sergio won a gift certificate from Bluewater!

The story:  I had been for the first time on Revillagigedo Archipelago with friends and my new photo gear (I got it one week before on Blue Water Photo). We started the dives at San Benedict with a lot of Mantas rays we loved it. After this small island the boat went to Rocca Partida. On the first day of dive there we watched the most impressive thing that any of us on the boat have ever seen in our dives.

Female humpback, her two years old calf and an escort were unmoving, so calm and quiet at a depth of about 42 feet. After a while the whales went to surface and two Orcas started to hunt the calf. One of the orcas  distracted both adult whales by swimming in front of them, while the other one attacked from behind, grabbing the calf by its fin and quickly dragging it away from the adult humpbacks. It was a really quick and perfectly orchestrated attack. The orcas were swimming away from Roca Partida, dragging the dead calf. The humpbacks lost track of the orcas and stayed at Roca Partida. They were so nervous, like two buses out of control. It was the most dangerous part, as they went by pretty close to us. The dive was aborted and we returned to the boat - terrified! The captain cancelled the next dive for security reason. We resumed diving on the afternoon, but we didn’t find the whales or the orcas. Next morning, on the same spot, we found the whales: mom and escort. Once again they were so calm and didn't care about us. This was when I took the picture: Mommy without her calf and my friend Gustavo Verzoni. There, we are the guests, just to watching, nothing more.

Location:  Rocca Partida, Mexico

Camera:  Canon 6D, lens 16-35mm f2.8L II USM,  Nauticam (Housing, port lens and arms), 2 -Strobes ( YS-27-DX and YS-D1). Optic cables. Manual mode.

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