Watch: Breaching whale recorded from Golden Gate Bridge

SAN FRANCISCO (KRON) – A California photographer captured a whale breaching in San Francisco Bay Friday afternoon between the Golden Gate Bridge and Alcatraz Island.

George Kaskanlian told Nexstar’s KRON he captured the video while filming spouting whales and other marine mammals from the Golden Gate Bridge between noon and 2 p.m.

The Marine Mammal Center website states that a whale performs a full breach when more than half of its body rises above the water’s surface.

“A whale breaching is among the most spectacular behaviors you can see in nature,” the Marine Mammal Center website reads. “During a breach, the whale propels itself out of the water in either a spinning or non-spinning motion.”

Researchers think that breaching and other loud surface actions like tail slapping and flipper slapping are a form of communication with other whales, according to the center. These splashes can be heard for miles.

“While it can be harder to see whale spouts on a windy day, you may have a better chance of seeing breaching behavior since the chop makes it too loud for the animals to easily communicate otherwise,” the organization’s website reads.

The whale’s species could not be identified with absolute certainty due to its distance from the camera. However, experts at the Marine Mammal Center told KRON that they are confident the whale is a humpback based on its breach and the time of year of the sighting.