Juvenile Humpback beached. As far as I know it went back to sea. Anybody know more?

The article says:

Zwamborn said that while researchers can't know for sure, she and her colleagues suspect the killer whale took the newborn away from its parents.

She said it's possible that this particular orca has been unsuccessful in either getting pregnant or keeping a newborn orca alive and went out in search of its own whale calf.

Do you think anyone has considered that the orca may have wanted a pet, not an adopted calf? Instead of being a mother to the pilot whale, what if she just wanted a companion and rescued it like humans rescue dogs and cats?

Went on my first ever whale watching trip today and we got to see the CA51 Pod !!!!

https://www.wavy.com/news/north-carolina/obx/whale-found-washed-up-near-bennett-street-beach-access/

I'm curious and would like opinions from this group. The Cuvier Whale is the deepest diving whale in the entire world with it's deepest recorded depth being 2,992 meters (9,816 ft) for 3 hours and 42 minutes, is it possible for the Cuvier Whale to dive to the Titanic site if it wanted too seeing as the wreck is 3,800 meters (12,500 ft)?

In July the whales move up the Saint Lawrence to feed and calve. There are Humpbacks, Fins, and others, as well as white Belugas and Gray seals. I’ve included an info page on the last slide that shows the whales commonly found there. It was a great excursion and I hope to visit again soon. Love the whales!

Hello, I hope this post is okay.

I just received a whale tooth as a gift, and I need help identifying which whale it comes from. The only information I have is that it is from a toothed whale (funnily enough) that was caught around the south pole in 1935. Picture attaches with a tealight for scale.

Hope you can help me!

So as many will know, 2 days ago a video of a supposed blue x humpback hybrid was posted on this subreddit to much fanfare (over 1K upvotes). Many people acknowledged the video as real, though there were some dissenting opinions. The OP of that post was by their own admission very zealous in the idea that this footage was real and that it represented a blue x humpback hybrid. However, others have noted that it seems suspicious that the OP would have posted an OC of a blue x humpback hybrid (now deleted) around the same time they posted the videos on youtube. Accusations are currently flying back and forth on a discussion thread-accusations of AI, 3D animation etc. This post hopes to elucidate what is a plausible answer and what is not to this intriguing footage. Keep in mind that I am a layperson, not a cetacean expert, but I am trying my best given I already see things being misinterpreted from statements made by the OP and other commenters.

I. The Source of the Footage

The full 6 minutes of footage can be seen here on youtube. People noted that they were surprised that the existence of a supposed "bluehump" had not reached the news earlier, as this would seem to be a newsworthy occurrence-the mixing between humpbacks and other balaenopterids has never been verified before, and the footage of the whale is very clear and shows a very unusual animal. This has led to some commentators to suggest the video is a 3D animation, or AI generated. There is, of course, also the possibility that the footage is real. But before this discussion the provenance of the footage must be determined. The footage was found on a site called Kurator link to original, which collects licensable footage. It is categorized as "January" and "1990-1999". Contrary to accusations that OP faked the footage themselves recently, the footage was discussed in a facebook group in 2017, 7 whole years ago. This discussion included a picture and an article on a now-defunct webpage for Skin-diver Magazine. Thankfully, the Internet Archive snapshotted the article, first in 2001 and lastly in 2013, titled "Whales of Rurutu" by Lionel and Talley Pozzoli, who appear to be French Divers who have authored at least one book. Looking up "Lionel Pozzoli", one result leads to an picture credit for an image on a website promoting whalewatching in French Polynesia-an image of our mystery whale! (scroll to bottom). Reading their article in Skin-Diver, it makes mention of the "white birthmark" on the mother humpback, nicknamed 'Tache Blanche'. The mystery calf is nicknamed 'Toufou', "Crazy Baby". An article from 1999 supports this as it mentions the mother's "white patch" on its back, visible in the video. It gives us further context: that the encounter happened in 1998, and supports the claim that the whale was filmed off of Rurutu.

Additionally, a picture of the same whale was posted on twitter in 2016, 8 years ago. This picture shows the same whale as the footage-all of the 'field marks' line up. So if the footage and pictures and story are fake, then someone other than OP is the culprit. The evidence seems to paint a picture. An abnormal, possibly hybrid whale, was encountered by divers off of the French Polynesian island of Rurutu sometime between 1998 and 2001. Film footage and pictures were taken of this animal. So therefore we have three possibilities: The footage is a 3D animation, the footage is AI generated, and the footage is legitimate. These possibilities are examined below

Possibility 1: The Footage is a 3D animation

3D animation, particularly in software such as blender and source filmmaker, has made leaps and bounds in recent years, allowing for hyper-realistic footage such as this. Therefore, assuming the OP or someone else was competent enough, the footage being a 3D animation is a certain possibility. However, given the amount of evidence for the story, including pictures of 'Toufou" I regard this as unlikely. The presence of divers in the footage as well as the way the whale interacts with the water (one of the harder aspects of CGI) for footage that, given the evidence, would have had to have been made in 2017 or earlier, makes me doubtful of this explanation. Furthermore-if this was intended to be footage made to deceive or trick people, what was it doing on an obscure licensable footage website instead of Youtube or other major social media? And why is it simply labelled "humpback offspring", not something more eyecatching?

Possibility 2: The Footage is AI Generated

This is the possibility that I think is implausible at best given the video was being discussed at least as early as 2017, a picture was posted in 2016, and the Skin-Diver article with photo and mention of 'Toufou' was archived last in 2013 and first in 2001. Additionally, the Kurator page lists the footage as being in the category "1990-1999" and "1999". These obviously predate AI footage generation. Additionally, the 1999 paper mentioning the white-marked mother humpback and her bizarre progeny makes clear that, regardless of the veracity of the footage or actual identity of the whale, a strange encounter took place off of Rurutu.

Possibility 3: The Footage is Legitimate

I was rather leery of this possibility-that the footage shows an abnormal baby humpback, possibly a hybrid. However, my probing into this incident to find sources for these images has convinced me that, against all odds, that the footage is probably legitimate. The circumstantial evidence, such as the photos, articles, and discussion of footage from 2017, all lead me to conclude that the footage does show a real whale. Admittedly, I have no way of definitively proving this, but, as Arthur Conan Doyle wrote his famous character Sherlock Holmes: "Once you eliminate the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth".

II. Who's Your Daddy?

Assuming the footage is real, and not a clever hoax, what then are we to make of 'Toufou'? His mother, 'Tache blanche', is pretty clearly a normal humpback whale, with the characteristic dark dorsal color, long pectoral fins, and knobbled snout. The whale in the footage is clearly not a 'normal' humpback-this can plainly be seen in the footage where he swims next to his mother, 'tache blanche'. His profile, particularly the high fin, recalls the other Rorquals, such as the Sei, Fin, Blue, Brydes', and Minke. His mottled grey-blue coloration certainly looks like that of a blue whales'. But he has the facial knobs and mouth of a humpback. But his relative 'imperfections' may be the result of a genetic mutation. So the claim that 'Toufou' is a definite Blue x Humpback hybrid should not be taken as a fact-the facebook discussion concluded that if he was a hybrid, he was likely sired by a Bryde's whale. With no genetic information collected from 'Toufou', a conclusion beyond "possible hybrid" cannot be substantiated.

III. Conclusion

In Conclusion:

. The footage of the 'Rurutu mystery whale' is probably legitimate given the amount of circumstantial evidence surrounding it. A 3D animation would probably not be so good in 2017 and would not be posted on an obscure website if the aim was to go viral, and the video, story, and pictures existed prior to the advent of AI footage generation.

. The identity of the whale remains a mystery. Anyone claiming that it is certainly a hybrid, and furthermore a hybrid between a definite species and humpback, is incorrect.

. Questions, such as why the footage is so clear, remain unanswered. But it is worth noting that the best underwater cameras were already capable of producing film such as this.

. It should be noted that, contrary to what some are saying, the OP of the footage onto reddit did not admit the footage was faked. They simply admitted they took their certainty in it too far and handled the footage being questioned poorly.

a day ago, someone posted multiple videos of a supposed "hump-blue" hybrid whale apparently seen off the coast of rurutu island in french polynesia. there are no sources validating this whale's existence at all, and when searching for a humpback/blue hybrid, all that comes up are the videos posted to this sub.

if this were real, there would be news about it. this is the kind of hybrid that scientists would be giddy over, and in the whale world things like this dont go unnoticed. we have no idea who filmed/saw this whale, no dna samples, no news articles, no sources, nothing. anything i search about a hump-blue hybrid only brings up op's videos or general information about cetacean hybridization. the only info about this individual is coming from op themself. as much as i want to believe this is real i simply cant until i find any evidence that confirms it, and even further, if it were real, i wouldnt claim it is specifically a humpback/blue hybrid until getting a dna sample. which will likely never happen, because this whale is probably not real. if anyone else has found any information about this individual i'd love to see it.

im not trying to dig into or attack op for posting about it. it was just concerning to see the video having 1.5k upvotes and very few people seeking sources or more information about this individual under the thread. i dont know if the videos are ai generated, 3d animation, or something else, but until any other source except op is found, i cant believe this whale is real.

EDIT: op of the video admitted it is not real and apologized for any rudeness on their part.

https://www.reddit.com/r/whales/s/a8wO3TFoX0

EDIT 2: redacted some personal stuff op wanted removed

EDIT 3: i mistakenly said op does not believe this video is real. they actually are unsure if it is real or not. some commentors have posted links to this video being discussed on facebook back in 2017. it is possible that this whale exists, but the only info about it seems to be a paper from 1999.

I tried typing but it wouldnt work so im using screenshots of it

As a response to https://www.reddit.com/r/whales/comments/1hhvjle/is_the_humpbackblue_whale_hybrid_real/