The Whale Release and Strandings Group is used to a lot of whale behaviour, but witnessed something new during a rescue in Conception Bay last week.

Julie Huntington says they were cutting a humpback free from gear entangled around its body when the whale did something they’ve never seen before.

She says after they cut the gear from the animal, it turned onto its back and stayed like that for a period of time, showing them its belly. “We were like, ‘wow, that’s really unusual.'”

Huntington says some people believe it was the whale’s way of saying thank you, but she’s not sure what the animal was doing.

She believes that it knew it was no longer entangled, and was trying to get its equilibrium back. She says after they removed another few pieces of gear from around the whale’s mouth, “it went on.”