PHOTOS: Whale migration spectacle grips Watamu

For a creature 15 metres long and weighing close to 30 tonnes, or six times the weight of an elephant, the 4,000-kilometre journey is worth it!

Whales may have lived in the shadows of their smaller cousins, the dolphins, known for their acrobatic, synchronized stunts. Whales too can show off, and in a big way, and humpbacks, according to scientists, are the most active of all whales. Despite their massive sizes, leaping out of water presents little challenge. Whale watchers have been mesmerized as these creatures jump out of the water, slapping the surface with their pectoral fins or tails in a well-choreographed act known as breaching.

In Watamu, the proliferation of what a local marine association terms "competitive mating behaviour involving posturing males and females" has attracted watchers both on land and in the sea.

Among them is Mike Mwang'ombe, a whale enthusiast and manager of Watamu Marine Association's Marine Mammal Conservation and Research Program. Mike has spent over a decade studying their peculiar habits through Watamu Marine Association. Joined by a coalition of fishermen, tourist boats, scientists, and students, Mike has cast his eyes to the ocean to report not just on whales but also dolphins and dugongs in Kenya. His organization has worked with Kenya Wildlife Service and a citizen science group, Kenya Marine Mammal Network in conserving marine mammals and help to grow the dolphin and whale watching ecotourism at Kenya's coast.

Naming the giants

Like the elephants of Amboseli that have individual names, KWS has decided to name some of the whales. In yet another post, KWS uploaded a short video of a mother and calf in a showy display off the coast of Watamu.

The mother's name was given as Naimah, of ID number, WT01_072922 and she was having an intimate moment with her calf, Dayo.

But how one can manage to identify and name a creature that only surfaces for a few fleeting seconds at a time. While KWS did not provide details of how they managed what seems to be an impossible task, experts say there are distinct details that can help tell one whale from another.

According to Whale Sense, a voluntary education and recognition program for commercial whale watching companies in the United States and sponsored by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, individual whales have distinct markings akin to your fingerprints, thus no two whales are alike. But patience is needed to identify such features.

"Take photos. Lots of photos," the marine body says. Such photos, it adds, assist scientists in locating unique features such as tags, scars, and other natural marks. One of the most commonly used features is the whale's tail or fluke. In a nose-dive back into the water after plunging its body upwards, a humpback whale reveals distinct white and black pigment patterns, scars that taken together form a unique identity. By October, the show will be at the tail end, and the mighty creatures will head back south for a sumptuous meal of krill.