Whale Season on Maui: Behind “Mama Spyhop”

Every winter, humpback whales make one of the longest migrations on Earth — thousands of miles from Alaska to the warm, shallow waters off Maui — to breed, give birth, and raise their calves. From December through April, the channel between Maui, Lanai, and Kahoolawe becomes one of the best places in the world to see them.

"Mama Spyhop" was taken in the middle of that season — and it started as barely a speck on the horizon.

We spotted her from about a mile off: just the tip of her rostrum poking out of the water, hanging there motionless. We puttered the boat in slow, easing up to about fifty yards, and I got in the water. She hadn't noticed me yet — or didn't care yet — and I managed a few frames of her hanging vertical in that glassy water, calf somewhere nearby below. Then she clocked me, and that was it — one smooth roll and she was gone. A few shots. That's all you ever get, and it's always enough.

A spyhop, for the uninitiated, is when a whale rises vertically out of the water, head-first, just far enough to get its eyes above the surface — essentially the whale taking a look around. When a mother does it with a calf nearby, it's one of the most striking things you'll ever see from the water.

Photographing whales responsibly

Whales are protected under federal law, and there are strict approach limits in Hawaiian waters. All of my whale images are taken at legal distances with long lenses, or in chance encounters where the whale chose to come closer. The animal's comfort always comes first — no shot is worth stressing a mother and calf.

Bring it home

"Mama Spyhop" is available as a fine-art print on aluminum metal, acrylic, and canvas: https://www.drewsulockcreations.com/purchase-photos/p/mama-spyhop