Nearly 20,000 humpbacks spend their summers in Alaskan waters, where they feed. They migrate to Hawaii for the winter. where they will live off their fat reserves while breeding. The females breed every two or three years, and bear their young in both northern and southern waters. Humpbacks are often curious about objects in their environments. Some of them gain a reputation as “friendlies” and will approach boats to check them out. This whale is a friendly. It circled our small boat at fairly close range for over fifteen minutes, and at one point we saw its head come up out the water to inspect us visually. I caught the moment of inspection here, just as an exhaled cloud of steam was rising from the whale’s head.