A whale strikes back, launching its tonnes of flesh into the air to deliver a warning to a jet ski rider harassing its pod off Bass Point in Shellharbour.
Hey! We're swimming here.
That's what may have been captured by these extraordinary photos, taken from shore by Wollongong amateur photographer Christine Harris.
Without being able to ask the whale, we can't be certain, but the whale lover who took the photos said it seemed quite possible this is what she had captured, about 400 metres off Bass Point on Saturday, October 5.
Ms Harris said there was real distress among the group of whale watchers on the point about the actions of the jet ski pilot, who was repeatedly going much closer than the 300 metres distance they must stay away from whales.
"From what we could see it was a deliberate thing ... he knew the whales were there," she said.
"He was just zigzagging backwards and forwards past them.
"There's that many babies - nearly every adult's got a baby - there's just calves everywhere at the moment. They're the playful ones ... they were the ones doing most of the breaching."
While they watched, one humpback launched itself from the water near the jet ski rider, twisting as it came down to deliver an almighty slap to the surface.
Ms Harris said she couldn't be certain of the whale's intentions but it could have been being protective.
"It looks like it's angry because of what's happening, but it may have just breached as he went past," she said.
"We give those great animals credit for being intelligent, and if the guy's been buzzing around, doing things that would no doubt be annoying, maybe that's why it was trying to help out the rest of them."
Other pictures show the jet ski rider appearing to film himself with his phone while approaching a whale which was rolling in the water, perhaps slapping its fin on the surface to communicate.
University of Wollongong biological sciences lecturer Dr Katharina J. Peters, who studies marine mammal behaviour, said humpback whales can use their "aerial behaviour" to send a warning.
"We know that humpback whales use aerial behaviour to communicate as well over long distance, for example," Dr Peters told ACM.
"You might have whales breaching and they potentially communicate with other whales much further away, but it's also often seen to happen when boats are approaching. Potentially it's a way of them signalling that they're there, so boats don't necessarily run into them or run over them.
"In a case like this, where you have a jet ski really harassing a whale - and jet skis are very noisy underwater - it definitely could be a behaviour whether it's a warning, or just like letting them know that the whale is there, or trying to bear them off, which is sometimes what they do with their flippers or with their tail.
"It could have definitely been something like that.
"It's of course hard to say because we weren't there and even if you're there, it's still obviously hard to measure. You don't know what's going on inside the head of the whale, but it's definitely a behaviour that is very, very plausible."
Dr Peters said the move would not have been an attempt to hit the jet ski rider, as humpback whales aren't predatory, but they have a repertoire of moves which may be employed to ward off danger.
ACM was told the incident was reported to the NSW National Parks and Wildlife Service (NPWS), but a spokeswoman said they did not have any record of a report. NPWS urged anyone with information that could help identify the jet ski to contact them on 1300 072 757.
