Friendly Dolphins Swim Alongside Huge Humpback Whale In Rare Video [Video]

A video showing a pod of dolphins swimming in front of a giant humpback whale is fast garnering attention all over the world. The video has captured a rare moment that has never been seen on camera. The phenomenon is known as “Whale Surfing,” according to Discovery. Dolphins have this habit of swimming (or surfing) in front of boats and ships in order to get a free ride — thanks to the pressure wave that the large size of these objects moving in water creates in front of them. This is most famously seen in the 1997 movie, Titanic. However, a drone camera has captured dolphins doing the same thing with a large humpback whale.

The video was captured by Capt. Dave’s Dolphin and Whale Safari off the California coast. In the video, a pod of dolphins is seen swimming right in front of the large Humpback whale. Captain Dave claims that this is the only documented phenomenon of whale surfing by dolphins caught on camera. The footage also shows an underwater shot taken from an underwater viewing pod. The footage was captured over the course of a month and compiled into this short video. A more detailed version of the footage captured using the drone camera will appear in a 2015 National Geographic documentary in the making, titled “United States of Animals.”

The footage is also special in that humpback whales are not usually seen off the Californian coast. This one named, “Gooseneck,” however has been hanging out in the area for over nine weeks, usually seen swimming alongside the ever-friendly dolphins. The footage also shows the dolphins swimming alongside the whales as boats filled with tourists watch the spectacle in awe. While dolphins are known to swim alongside boats, it is extremely rare for us to see them doing the same with large whales.

The humpback whale has been named “Gooseneck” because it has a set of distinctive barnacles on its dorsal fin. The whale has been seen feeding with dolphins along the coast. Recently though, another large humpback whale has joined Gooseneck.

Captain Dave quips:

“I hope he will stay around all winter, though I expect him to head to mainland Mexico along with the 800 or so humpbacks that spend the summer feeding off of central California. Up until this year humpbacks have been seen only a few times a year off Orange County. However, this is the year of the humpback! We have probably had twenty times the humpback sightings this year. And I don’t think we have had a whale of any species that has been seen this many times for this long. And we see a lot of whales we have year round watching and regularly see blue whales, gray whales, fin whales, and minke whales at different times of year.”

In a related report, the Inquisitr recently reported about a pod of humpback whales surprising a few Norwegian fisherman, as well as the sad story of a beached humpback whale in Nicaragua — which unfortunately died on the beach.

[Image Via YouTube]