On the first day of the expedition, Mikhail Korostelev headed straight out to sea. Even after several flights, he didn’t bother booking a hotel before casting off to spot—and be spotted by—whales amid the Polynesian island kingdom of Tonga, in the South Pacific.
Calves are usually what they find swimming in these shallower waters, but two adult males surprised them this particular day. “Two male humpbacks met people in the water [for the] first time in their life,” Korostelev told The Epoch Times of the jaunt. “They researched us, watching us, touched us, and even stopped us when somebody decided to return to the boat.”
Rendezvous with whales are typically brief, while such play dates as this one are rare, indeed. “When you work with whales, ninety-nine percent [of] meetings are [us] looking as whales pass by,” Korostelev said. “One percent [are] memorable encounters, contacts with whales, when they interact with you, ‘talk’ with you, research you.”
The inquisitive pair came right up to the boat and swam with them for several hours, and even “stood up vertically” when it came time to depart as if to say, “Where are you going? We don’t want to stop playing,” Korostelev said.
Besides this remarkable trip, Korostelev has sojourned to French Polynesia, South Africa, Mexico, various places throughout his native Russia, and other extraordinary undersea spots on the planet. He recalled one instance of being tethered to a small boat off the Solovetsky Islands, Russia, in the White Sea, where he sang a hymn underwater to attract several “shy” beluga whales that had been aloof. They came right up face-to-face with him and listened to his singing.
Whales are incredibly intelligent, Korostelev says. He recounts an enormous sperm whale off the Azores Islands, Portugal, which he interpreted as beckoning him to fetch a floating plastic bag nearby—Korostelev even has video proof of this. “They can talk with you,” he said. This meeting was followed by a face-to-face encounter where they literally saw eye-to-eye. “That case was amazing,” he said. “After that, you can be sure that whales are another high civilization on our planet.”
Korostelev’s photography has garnered him accolades that include the title of European Wildlife Photographer of the Year in Germany in 2022 and Nature Photographer of the Year in the Netherlands in 2017. He said his ultimate ambition is to win the title of Wildlife Photographer of the Year in the London competition.
But extraordinary photography results aren’t furnished on demand. One has to stay in a place long enough—“minimum one month,” he said—before one can “expect great photos in the end of a project.” That way, one sees the same animal each day, begins to understand its behavior, and may await something truly exceptional. The adventurers sometimes stay on a yacht or catamaran or sometimes at a hotel near the shore; it varies from location to location. On Shantar Island, Russia, they lived in tents for weeks on end on a beach.
Though idyllic sounding, one might ask whether Korostelev ever gets nervous lingering so close to these giants of the deep. He doesn’t see them as threatening as he is in tune with their situation. “Whales are absolutely not dangerous if you are not touching them or thrusting harpoons into their body,” he said. They may be big and padded by tons of blubber but, like you or I, they prefer a tender touch.
