Boy meets girl. Individual 2, Group 1, whom we follow around the Bay for three hours. We note that Dear John has a white scratch on his left side and a red mark on his pointy dorsal fin that appears to be an open wound. Perhaps he was scuffed by another male who challenged his enviable intimacy with Howardina. Although popularly known as gentle giants, male humpbacks get aggressive during the breeding season, commonly challenging each other for the right to be the primary escort to a female.
Males often use their entire bodies as weapons during attacks.
Although dramatic, the fights aren't fatal, and serious injuries are probably rare. Rather than submit and mate, she languidly slaps the sea with her long white flippers and occasionally brings them together as if to clap overhead. By rolling over time and again and exposing her pleated white belly up out of the water, she is likely spurning the lovesick Dear John by protecting her genital slit and, quite possibly, summoning other males. As she rolls, Howard tries to detect a basketball-sized lobe on her underside that will confirm her gender. A patch of barnacles covers the genital area, making it a dicey call.