A humpback breeches high above the water. 

CRESCENT LAKE — Some people call Taylor-Rose Stone a “whale whisperer.”

“No!” she shouts defiantly. “There’s nothing about me that whispers when I see a whale.”

Then, for added emphasis, she excitedly demonstrates the deafening, ear-shattering wail she yelps when she sees a whale — “Yipppeeeee!”

Stone will be shouting delightedly on a near daily basis in a few weeks. In October, Stone will leave her tiny house near the community of Crescent Lake and head to Puerto Vallarta, a resort town on Mexico’s Pacific Coast.

Stone, who grew up in Klamath Falls, will spend six months leading whale-watching trips with her boat captain Jose Geovanny Reyes.

Learning about whales and leading whale-watching outings weren’t part of her life plan. In 2018, a time when life dealt the now 64-year-old Stone a series of setbacks, she decided to “treat myself to my No. 1 bucket list item, an Alaskan cruise.” While cruising in the Icy Point Straight she saw the hump of a humpback whale.

“Something happened to me at that moment,” she remembers. “I found something to be passionate about.”

After returning to Crescent Lake, she decided to temporarily relocate to Maui, where the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration operates the Hawaiian Islands Humpback Whale Marine Sanctuary. She completed a 20-hour training course and volunteered at events sponsored by NOAA and other whale organizations. She studied humpbacks from shore on her own, and participated in whale counts and NOAA-supported studies about whale harassment by boaters.

In 2021 she went to Puerto Vallarta, another region where humpback whales seasonally migrate. Having studied and become well-versed about humpbacks, she can reel off a Wikipedia’s worth of humpback data: Humpbacks weigh 45 tons and are 45 feet long; whales have been on earth for 63 million years; humpbacks are called “ballena” in Mexico and “kohol’a” in Hawaii; mothers nurse their young for a year then leave; the term for a sleeping whale is “logging; the 36 golf ball-size bumps on a humpback’s upper and lower jaws are tubercles; and, no, a humpback cannot swallow a person.

She ticks off the information matter-of-factly. But her face lights up and her voice erupts in high-pitched cheerier tones when telling about and playing recordings of the diverse, haunting “songs” of humpbacks, which are regarded as the most vocal of all whales.

“I’m pretty much OCD when it comes to whales,” she chirps, noting her unbridled enthusiasm is contagious, which makes her a favorite on guided whale-watching outings. “I have a lot of repeat customers,” she says.

Stone earned the nickname “Whale Lady” because whenever she’s near the beach or on a boat, humpbacks seem to appear. Others have told her, “You are their voice.”

Because she is their voice, Stone is immersed in telling the humpbacks’ stories and advocating for their protection from boats that go too close to the whales. As she explains, “I want to give something back to whales because they gave me back my life.”

The giving back includes a self-published book, “Whales in the Air: A Look at Humpback Whale Courtship.” It tells the story of a Jan. 22, 2022, encounter with a female humpback, Ava, during a tour in Banderas, Jalisco, Mexico. That day Ava repeatedly rolled on her back and slapped the water with her pectoral fins, a signal that she was receptive to mating. Stone weaves in humpback facts, including how whales can be identified by unique markings on their flukes, which are also called tails, in her tale. She believes Ava sensed something about her, a belief strengthened when the massive humpback suddenly and unexpectedly appeared under Stone’s feet, which were dangling over the bow of the boat.

“This was the whale that could have taken me out,” Stone writes. “She didn’t. I have never known such a moment of pure heart joy as she flew in the air right in front of me. I felt Ava had just blessed me and all the passengers on that boat. It was a moment I will never forget.”

What moments are ahead for Stone when she returns to Puerto Vallarta?

“When I see one I’ll be screaming at the top of my lungs,” Stone says with a raucous belly laugh. Then, after a deep breath, in a soft whisper, she says, “It’s a world I never guessed I’d be in. I dream about whales.”

December, January and February are the best months to see whales out of Puerto Vallarta, she says.

For more information about Stone’s tours, email her at thewhalelady1@gmail.com. A Youtube video is available at https://youtu.be/R7pv5UhH-iY.