When marine biologists first spotted the humpback whale AHWC no. 1363, there did not appear to be anything remarkable about her at all. Seen with another female on the Abrolhos Bank off the coast of Brazil on August 7th, 1999, the whale simply stuck around long enough for the scientists to snap a few photographs and collect genetic data before everyone went off on their own way.

1363 would not be seen again for two years. When she did turn up, it was in a place marine biologists were not expecting. On September 21, 2001 the whale was photographed again by members of a commercial whale-watching tour in a humpback whale breeding ground off the east coast of Madagascar, nearly 10,000