A Strange Photograph

[Clem]

Regardless of latitude, I would place most of my life's savings on Southern Right Whale, mother and calf, the latter distinguished by its (juvenile) lighter colouring. "Tentacles" are merely their frothy wake

Hello OB,

Interesting idea, but you'd expect the wakes to be, well, in their wakes, i.e. next to what appear to be these objects' "tails." Unless...mother and calf (if that's what we're looking at) ascended vertically, executed partial breaches and then slid back and down on their tails, leaving frothy head-prints on the surface.

Perhaps Greg is right, and it's just a pair of hypersonic spy planes playing splashy-splashy.

Cheers,
Clem

 

[OB]

For comparison, whatch the frothy "tentacles" in the left thumbnail and the grey vs. black colour difference in the right one... You can actually make out the front callosities on our left hand mystery "squid", although resolution is quite poor. The latter probably accounts for the (suggested) wakes to be able hide the (suggested) whales' flukes from sight.

Olaf "Mythbuster" Blaauw

 

[chrono_war01]

but zee color of the whales are wrong, and how do you explain the fin like objects?

 

[Infusoria]

Seems to me that they are the wrong colour to be squid, being grey. I'm going for whales and blurry photoraphy.

 

[Clem]

Hmmm.

Ningaloo is host to sperm whales, humpbacks, the odd blue whale, whale sharks, seals and various dolphins. Also: dugongs. I haven't caught any references to basking sharks; their inflated gills (puffed out for filter-feeding) might explain what looks like a strong demarcation line near the pointy end, which I've taken for a distinct tail. A basking shark ID might also explain the "arms," if the sharks' dorsal and/or upper caudal fins were breaking the surface: the current and wind flowing past the exposed fin tips might create such wakes.

These objects look purplish in color to me.

Clem

 

[Tintenfisch]

I'm going for whales and blurry photoraphy.

Party pooper.

 

[OB]

Let's poop the party a bit more, then

This usually works well for contrast, inverting colours: "POP", out come the tail flukes! Sperm whale might be possible, given the dimensions. Sperm whales, however, travel alone (bulls) or in family groups more often than paired, which in fact SRW's do a lot; it's all they do, it's WHAT they do,..., and they never stop!!!

PS: The assumed "hood" or fins on the right hand Cryptoteuthis IMHO is a wave crescent, but I'll leave that to the sceptics to decide

 

[tonmo]

Hey, nice work on this, ob! I think I can stop staring now!

 

[chrono_war01]

Let's poop the party a bit more, then

This usually works well for contrast, inverting colours: "POP", out come the tail flukes! Sperm whale might be possible, given the dimensions. Sperm whales, however, travel alone (bulls) or in family groups more often than paired, which in fact SRW's do a lot; it's all they do, it's WHAT they do,..., and they never stop!!!

PS: The assumed "hood" or fins on the right hand Cryptoteuthis IMHO is a wave crescent, but I'll leave that to the sceptics to decide

You spoil all and I do mean all the fun!

But inverting colors just made them more "cephish" to me.

 

[OB]

You spoil all and I do mean all the fun!

But inverting colors just made them more "cephish" to me.

No sweat chrono war, just trying to hide my deep cryptozoological convictions, I do that well enough by now

Olaf