Whale Fluke Print — Sperm Whale Dive Footprint
46,310.20 ¥
A sperm whale’s fluke print — the circular area of calm water left at the surface by a whale’s final fluke stroke before a deep dive — with the tail itself just below the surface at the moment of frame capture, the Azores Atlantic behind.
Description
The fluke print — the smooth circular area of water left at the surface when a large whale’s flukes push downward in the final stroke of a dive — is a phenomenon that experienced whale watch guides use to track and predict whale positions at the surface. This image captures a sperm whale at the exact moment of fluke print formation: the flukes are just below the surface, visible as a dark triangular shadow through the clear Azores water, while the circular area of smooth surface water — glassy, undisturbed, approximately 3 metres in diameter — spreads around the descent point. Photographically, the interest of the fluke print is its paradoxical quality: the whale is absent from the visible surface but the evidence of its exit is maximally clear in the undisturbed water. Shot from a zodiac at 2 metres above water surface with a 70-200mm lens.
