Imagine gliding smoothly across the aerofoil of the ocean in a beautiful sheer kayak when you come across the tail of a humpback whale perfectly poised above the open of the piss . That is incisively what happened to Brodie Moss when he come across a phenomenon known as " hindquarters sailing " .

Whales have all kinds of fun behaviors , from launch themselves out of the sea to cautiously plannedwhale watering place visit . This behavior of tail glide is super uncommon to witness and scientists do n’t to the full understand the understanding for it . stern seafaring has been observed in southern right whales and humpbacks in multiple locations , so what could be an explanation for this deportment ? While Moss does n’t say where the video was filmed , he divvy up the encounter on hisYoutubeandTiktokchannels .

Whale tail sailplaning is often recorded in distaff whales with calves , so one potential explanation could be that the mother are resting while the calf swim safely nearby . According to onestudy , this behavior is not strictly for whale nursing , since this can happen in arange of postions , but could allow the female parent to rest while feeding .

" We know logically that nursing is a part of this [ behavior ] , " Ed Lyman , resource shelter specialist for the Hawaiian Islands Humpback Whale National Marine Sanctuary , order theHuffington Post . When a whale rests in this position , its mammary glands are perfectly oriented to squeeze out milk into the calf ’s sassing , he explained .

Some whale are do it tosleepin the unusual position of completely upright in the water , so this unusual upright tail behavior could be associate to dissimilar resting behavior .

Another substitute explanation for tail seafaring is that the giant is just cool down . whale have been love to take out this behavior for around 15 minutes , though reports suggest it can last many hours . Whale tail hold mellow levels of line of descent vessels , which could do good from evaporative cooling when deem above the water .

hulk are be intimate to slap their tails heavily on the surface of the body of water in a behavior sometimes called “ lobtailing ” . This could be used as a method acting of communication between whales , either monish off belligerent males or it is suggested that the haphazardness and subsequent bubble scare prey specie , attain them more unconnected and therefore easier to hunt .