The white spray soaking the air

[shootingstar]

. . . , she felt a buzz from a phone in her pocket. She hadn' realisesed it was in there. She pulled it out. A text message from Izzy.
She noticed that the wallpaper was a photo of herself and Dan somewhere hot.
She unlocked the phone using facial recognition and opened the message. It was a photo of a whale rising high out of the ocean, the white spray soaking the air like a burst of champagne. It was a wonderful photo and just seeing it caused her to smile.

(The Midnight Library by Matt Haig, episode The Three Horseshoes)

I wonder if "the white spray" could be the whale's spout (I think "spout" is the technical term of the 'fountain' the whaler (now fortunately outlawed by most countries) could see when he cried 'There she blows !' (the whaler's traditional hail)). On the other hand, it might just mean "the white spray" is owed to the huge whale's sudden emerging out of the water and the surf and foam caused by that. Owing to the comparison with the "burst of champagne" I imagine the term "spout" standing to reason.

 

[güey]

Even without the champagne comparison, it'd still be clear it's a whale spout, because it says "spray", not "splash", and also because a really spectacular splash would be seen upon its diving back into the water as opposed to when it's still in the air.