TROMSO, Norway, Oct. 12 (UPI) -- Norway's proximity to the arctic and clean, fish-filled water make it one of the few places in the world where the Northern Lights and whale sightings occasionally happen at the same time.
And apparently, there's no better place to catch the double feature than the Norwegian island Kvaloya, which translates to "whale island." That's where Harald Albrigtsen was last week when he recorded amazing footage of a group of humpback whales swimming beneath a electric green sky.
Albrigtsen was filming the aurora borealis near the city of Tromso, when he noticed a commotion in the water. He soon counted as many as six humpback whales surfacing near the coast, as the green lights swirled overhead.
Albrigtsen, who works for Norwegian Public Broadcasting (NRK), came back the next day to find the same stunning combination. He captured much of his experience on film, using a special low-light camera.
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"I came suddenly upon a bunch of humpback whales that were playing under the Northern Lights," he told NRK. "I went back the following day to see if I could get closer. After a few hours I nearly gave up, but then they turned up again."
Norway may be one of the likelier places to spot whales and the Northern Lights at the same time, but the arrival of humpbacks was rather unusual until recently.
Most North Atlantic humpbacks take a direct route from Barents Sea to the Caribbean. But in recent years, more and more humpbacks have been seen basking in the coastal waters of Norway.
"It's a new phenomenon for them to be coming here to Tromso," conservationist Fredrik Broms told the scientific magazine ScienceNordic. "This is occurring to an extent which no living person has ever witnessed. It gives us a unique opportunity to chart the otherwise little known north-eastern stock of North Atlantic humpback whales."
The closer one gets to the poles, the higher the chance of seeing the colorful light show that happens when solar winds excite charged particles flowing along the lines of the Earth's electromagnetic shield. In some places, like Greenland and northern Alaska, the Northern Lights are visible nearly every night.
