Rocker the Humpback Whale
His Story
Imagine that you are out whale-watching for the first time and you see big splashes of white water way off in the distance.
It seems to take the boat forever to get to that area, but as you get a little closer you see a black body in the air and then the white water. Get even closer and you see white flippers, a mostly white belly, the big black body and an even bigger splash!
If a humpback is breaching over and over again, it just might be Rocker. He is called the “Breaching Champion” due to his extraordinary breaching displays of 30-40 seemingly effortless jumps in a row!
Rocker was named for the curved mark on the upper left side of his fluke. While he is famous for breaching, Rocker is also a curious whale and often comes very near to boats on what is called a close boat approach. Keeping in character, Rocker stays active near boats by spyhopping, flippering and turning on his side to get a look at the boat and the people watching him.
How much energy do you think it takes to leap 35 feet out of the water when you weigh 80,000 to 90,000 pounds?
Rocker was last sighted in 2017.
Rocker is a co-star on Salt & Friends: Humpback Whales With Names, (60 minutes) a Telly Award winner and said to be the best nature program in the world.
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