I was not sure how long I had been hovering there, wondering why these fish with their forlorn-looking stare had decided that I was worthy of becoming the centre of their social pack, but I tried as hard as I could not to move. I did not want to scare off my new fishy friends.
The weather was turning. The wind was picking up and the sea had become so choppy that it was impossible to see the blow of a whale.
I was sitting in a zodiac in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, feeling that same sense of excitement I had felt in Antarctica earlier this year - intuitively knowing that our encounter with the fin whales was not over yet.