With the humpback calving season drawing to a close, here’s a look at some of Rita Kluge’s distinctive marine photos from the south Pacific. The Sydney-based photographer fell in love with whales after witnessing southern rights from the New South Wales coastline as they travelled to and from their feeding grounds in the Antarctic. She has since been to Tonga, where humpbacks breed and calf in winter months, to photograph them in the water. (Photo by Rita Kluge/The Guardian)

Merfolk gather at MerMania 2017, the world's largest gathering of amateur and professional mermaids and mermen in North Carloina, USA on January 21, 2017. (Photo by Brian Cahn/ZUMA Wire/Rex Features/Shutterstock)

A Green Crowned Brilliant is pictured at a Hummingbird feeding station on January 15, 2016 in Alajuela Costa Rica. Of the 338 known species of Hummingbird worldwide there are around 50 in Costa Rica. Hummingbirds are named for the distinctive sound made by their tiny beating wings, and are admired for their vibrantly coloured iridescent plumage. Their ability to hover, with wings beating between 12 and 90 times a second, and to fly backwards makes them different from all other birds. (Photo by Dan Kitwood/Getty Images)

Fossil records indicate that this early lizard, Megalania (Megalania prisca or Varanus priscus), was a whopping seven metres in length. They were part of a megafaunal assemblage that inhabited southern Australia during the Pleistocene. The youngest fossil remains date to around 50,000 years ago. The first aboriginal settlers of Australia might have encountered them and been a factor in their extinction. (Photo by Sky TV/The Guardian)

Tourists take photos from a panoramic viewing deck on Victoria Peak in Hong Kong, China, 26 January 2019. Hong Kong has been ranked the world's freest economy by the Heritage Foundation, a conservative research and educational institution based in Washington, for the 25th consecutive year, but the researchers also said the judiciary had become less effective. (Photo by Jerome Favre/EPA/EFE)

Lightning illuminates a thundercloud as a storm front hits the North Sea region near Westerhever, northern Germany, on August 11, 2014. (Photo by Daniel Reinhardt/AFP Photo/DPA)

A helicopter flies in front of the Wolf Moon as it rises over London, England on January 20, 2019. The Wolf Moon, the Full Moon on January 20-21, 2019, is a Supermoon, making it look bigger and brighter than usual during the total lunar eclipse. (Photo by Dinendra Haria/Rex Features/Shutterstock)

A handout TV grab made available by the Demiroren News Agency (DHA) on September 12, 2020, shows a freak sandstorm sweeping over Polatli, in Ankara, on September 12, 2020. A freak sandstorm hit Ankara on September 12, 2020, the Turkish capital's mayor said, as officials said six people were injured after strong winds. (Photo by Handout/DHA via AFP Photo)