Must do experiences in Perth is undoubtedly the Whale Watch Western Australia seasonal migration of the Humpback Whales on their southern migration and also the largest mammal to ever populate the planet, the Blue Whale on their northern migration to the Banda Sea in Indonesia. The northern Blue Whale migration can be witnessed in April and May (Autumn) while the Humpback southern migration can be experienced from late August to the end of November.
Today we were entertained by a volley of white water not long after we departed Sardine Jetty on our 10am tour, the surface language could be seen from kilometres away in the pristine conditions as a number of pods (six in total) of mothers and calves were displaying very defensive language on the surface and as we approached we realised the source of the agitation was a pod of cheeky bachelor males looking to show off to the new mums, much to their annoyance. It was amazing to watch as the energy of the bachelors increased, more and more mothers with their calves arrived to assist each other with strong tail slapping, breaching and tail lobbing, the calves joined in on and added their less but considerable weight to the argument by a series of very well orchestrated tail lobs for well over 30 minutes of intense action.
At one point the bachelors had separated one mum and calf and all of a sudden a huge tail lob from mum followed by a quick pivot as she hid under our vessel as the bachelors lost their bearings on her and continued competing with each other as mum utilised our sound footprint to head back to the larger pods of mothers and calves, a great move from mum. Finally, the boys realised she was gone and started to move southward as we followed and watched them play/compete with each other through Gage Roads and out the southbound channel toward the Southern Ocean. The energy today was very exciting and even though the whales haven’t eaten since April they still relied on their energy stores to move them toward the south and something that is a must do experience when in Perth, Western Australia.
