Humpback whale

Migrating pods pass up the coast in winter and spring, seen mostly from the boat (occasionally lunge-feeding on the Sardine Run).

Whale song is heard on dives more often than whales are seen at close range. Peak January-March; tapers off through April.

Humpbacks pass Tofo on their winter breeding migration, roughly June to November, peaking in August-September. They are seen from the surface on whale-watch and snorkel safaris and from shore, not encountered on scuba.

Vava'u is a breeding and calving ground for the Oceania humpback population (Tonga breeding sub-stock E3), which the IUCN lists as Endangered. Whales are present in Vava'u roughly mid-July to mid-October; in-water swims are legal only 1 July to 30 October, snorkel only, with licensed operators. August and September are the reliable months — July calves are newborn and mothers are more wary of boats, while by September and October calves are older and encounters tend to be longer. Outside the winter months the whales are in Antarctic feeding grounds and are not in Tonga at all.

Migrating humpbacks pass French Polynesia roughly August-October and are sometimes heard or seen near Fakarava, but in-water whale encounters are a Moorea/Rurutu specialty, not Fakarava's. Do not plan a Fakarava trip around them.