Photographer Catches Magnificent Moment Seal went Surfing the Back of a Humpback Whale

A photographer Robyn Malcolm has captured the unbelievable moment a seal was seen surfing on the back of a humpback whale off the NSW south coast. A pod of whales was in the midst of a feeding agitation when he captured the tremendously rare occurrence. On a recent whale-watching trip out of Eden, NSW, we experienced dolphins, seals, birds, and whales feeding on bait fish.

At times there was so much going on, you didn’t know which way to point the camera. The seals and dolphins were going crazy on top of the water, and then the whales would lunge straight through the middle. I managed to get some great photographs of whales feeding but was astonished to find these photographs among them, as I didn’t see them at the time. I don’t think he stayed there for long!

This was not the only stimulating interaction she had with whales in recent times. We were “mugged” by the biggest group of humpbacks I have ever seen, who was pleased to play with us for a while. What expert to see a seal riding on a whale was really rare, and only knew of one other case. Indeed this was a very rare instance and of course, I’ve only heard of one other occurrence and that was a seal that had climbed up on a whale to escape a killer whale.