Whale Displays
Whales are social creatures and have become known by humans for their acrobatic displays as they leap out of the water, exposing their majestic bodies to avid whale watchers. Whales have several distinct types of activity that prove to be most impressive when executed in their powerfully majestic form.
Breaching
When the whales breaches, it lunges out of the water, exposing at least 40% of its body.
A leap exposing less of the body is referred to as being a lunge, and is not intended to actually clear the water, but rather just as the result of a fast, upwards swim. Breaching is done with the clear intention of getting out of the water, and for various reasons. Some whales breach by swimming directly towards the surface of the water from deep below, rising nearly perpendicular to its surface and tipping over almost immediately. Other species coast along just under the surface of the water and suddenly jerk upwards and out of the ocean. A typical breach will be at about 30o to the water’s surface. A successful breach will actually expose up to 90% of the body. For a Humpback Whale to achieve this sort of display, it must be travelling at approximately 29km per hour.
Spyhopping
is done in sessions. Eventually, the whales tire and their  jumps decrease in number and their bodies weaken. Whales breach for various reasons. They tend to breach when they are in groups, implying that it has social relevance and can be a way of establishing dominance and impressing their peers. Breaching can also be performed to impress a prospective mate and during courtship. It may be used as a distress signal. Whales use up a lot of their precious energy resources in performing these powerful jumps, so fellow whales take this breaching very seriously and are likely to respond appropriately. Some research has indicated that whales may also breach to cause the loud splash, stunning and scaring their prey, and that whales even use this as a way of ridding their skin of parasites.
The act of spyhopping involved less of the body being exposed than breaching (usually only up to about 50%). It is also differentiated from breaching by the fact that the whale will hold its position out of the water for a period. This serves similar purposes to those of breaching, but also allows the animal to get an idea of its surroundings. An Orca is likely to spyhop in order to spot prey, such as seals.
Lobtailing
are known for slapping their tails, or flukes, onto the surface of the ocean, creating a splash. Even species with large flippers have been seen using them to create these heavy slaps and splashes. Interestingly, lobtailing is more common in species that have more complex social structures than those that do not. When preparing to lobtail, the whale will position its body downwards vertically and bend the tail stock, allowing for a strong, fast slap. One session of lobtailing will consist of several slaps, rarely just one. While lobtailing can be heard by other whales and dolphins hundreds of metres away, it is still not as effective as their other vocal means of communication and is thus likely reserved for showing off and as a sign of aggression. There has also been a theory that this splashing noise scares fish and causes them to stick closer together, providing the hunting whale with a larger number of fish in a smaller area.
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