The way you spot a whale in the distance, if they don't breach, is by the 'blow' from the whale expelling their breath. In days when whaling was common, it was accompanied by the call, "Thar she blows".
One of the signs of an intelligent animal is the trait of curiosity. While being cautious with her calf, the mother whale swam by our boat, rolled over onto her side and stuck one of her flippers (fins) out of the water.
While we did not observe a breach up close, we did see the mother do a roll into the water where her tail comes up and is the last thing to disappear into the water. You can also see the calf blowing here (right side of photo).
