Whale tail Kaikoura - Kids Youth T shirt

The big art on the back shows this colossus of the deep lifting his massive tail flukes to begin a dive off the coast of Kaikoura, near Goose Bay, New Zealand. While the small print on the left chest is a scrimshaw inspired above and under the water view of a sperm whale diving with his flukes uplifted which is inscribed beneath with the words: Kaikoura New Zealand —Home of the Mighty Sperm Whale.

Being in the presence of these mighty denizens of the deep commands a reverent awe. You watch individual sperm whale/pararoa take deep breaths on the surface then they lift their flukes up and dive vertically straight down to go hunting in the deep for their prey, which is where they spend much of their lives. Sperm whales can dive to depths of up to 3km and hold their breath for an incredible 2 hours.

In the background of the whale tail art on the shirt back, just a couple of kilometres distant are the peaks of the Seaward Kaikoura mountain range.

Whale watching sperm whales dive into the Kaikoura submarine canyon located about 800 metres off the Kaikoura coast is an amazing experience. At this point on the east coast the Kaikoura trench plunges to depths of over a kilometre very close to the shore, while just to the west the land is uplifted high to the snowy peaks of the seaward Kaikoura range that reaches its highest point with the 2,608-metre (8,556 ft) Mount Manakau.

The illustration is developed from multiple reference photos from multiple points of view combined in a new way, including one by cetacean expert Barbara Todd, used with her permission.