14 DAY TRIAL // While sailing close to the coast of Hawaii in the Pacific Ocean, wildlife photographer Jon Cornforth chanced to witness a most impressive scene: two humpback whales plunging out of the water and then landing with a splash in perfect unison.
43-year-old Jon Cornforth caught the marine mammals' behavior on film and his photo showing the humpback whales propelling their bodies out of the ocean is now making the rounds online.
Not at all surprisingly, the photographer is quite proud of this photo himself. “I was howling with joy as I quickly scrolled through my images and realize the magnitude of what I had just photographed,” he said in a statement, as cited by DM.
Although they've been closely observing them for decades now, wildlife researchers don't yet know for sure why humpback whales sometimes plunge out of the water seemingly out of the blue.
Some say the animals most likely do so to communicate, others believe all the acrobatics helps them get rid of parasites plaguing their bodies. Whatever the reason, the jumps are nothing short of amazing.
For those wondering, humpback whales can grow to measure about 12 to 16 meters (39 to 52 feet) in length. They populate seas and oceans across the world and travel about 25,000 kilometers (16,000 miles) annually to eat and breed.
