Humpbacks are often spotted in pairs. The females usually approach Stevenson first, learning to trust him as, like their own offspring, they see that he stays close to his ‘mother’.
“I’m always beside the boat and that is a point of reference for them,” he explains. “If they know where the boat is, they know where I am. It makes them feel safe. In some strange way I think that they view the boat as my protector.”
The males are more wary and usually stay in the background, as we see here.