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Photo Credit: Mark Michaels

Report on this rare encounter. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/237307212_An_unusual_encounter_with_a_mixed_school_of_melon-headed_whales_Peponocephala_electra_and_rough-toothed_dolphins_Steno_bredanensis_at_Rota_Northern_Mariana_Islands

I think Arnoux's Beked Whale but not 100% sure. Arnoux's because of:

• range
• color
• long beak
• bulbous melon which is steep
• size (like minke whale)

However: there are no scars at all. The dorsal fin looks to big, pointed and curved.

Maybe female southern bottle nose?

Would love to know and have a discussion!

Large pod -about 80 -northern extent of range of Arnoux’s beaked whales which was an ID I received from some correspondence with a fellow observer -more photos added as seems like the Indo-Pacific Beaked whale could be more likely given the location?

Dappled sunshine streams through Tonga's warm tropical waters. The newborn white humpback calf hovers above mum mimicking her pose. She's days or hours old, brand new and yet to colonised by the inevitable barnacles that will accompany her for the rest of her life. For her first 12 months she will be totally dependent on her mother's nuturing skills. The mother's blubber reserves must sustain the calf with fat rich milk during the winter fast until she returns to the feeding grounds in Antarctic waters. Vava'u, Kingdom of Tonga.