Western Australia’s Humpback Whale migration is one of epic proportion as over 45,000 whales join the journey. Today we observed over one hundred whales in the sighting ground with curious calves, boisterous bachelor’s and an incredible lesson of the Language of the Whales observed. Our morning tour started with a cosy cloud cover which soon cleared as within the sighting grounds we could see dozens of pods far and wide including one mother whale who looked very much like a whale we observed back in June 2018 whose fluke was white on both sides. Looking over our catalogue we can see that although incredibly similar this beautiful mother whale is not Vanilla Bean, but makes a wonderful new addition to our catalogue. Later in the morning we came across an incredibly curious mother and calf who swam circles around the Steep Point enabling us to get to know them better and what a beautiful pod they were.
Our midday tour was a different pace entirely as within moments of arriving in the sighting grounds a mother and calf we had spent time with yesterday were practicing the Language of the Whales in a spectacular way. The mother was pec slapping as her little male, black bellied calf launched into enormous head lunging as he tried to make us much noise as mum. Soon mum was breaching and we were in awe as she diligently taught her calf the technique required to achieve such spectacular movement above the waters surface. Further pods mingled nearby when we observed in the distance something very special, a tail sailing Humpback Whale. Observed in warmer waters further north it is not a behaviour we see very regularly off the Perth coastline. A mother whale was upside down with her fluke above the waters surface drifting with the breeze as her calf fed just below the waters surface. Tail sailing is used to control core body temperature and is an easy feeding for the calves with some mother whales much preferring to feed their calves in this position.
Our sunset tour was beautiful with a wonderfully calm sea and many, many Humpback Whales. Scanning the horizon and as far as the eye could see there were whales with tall, lofty blows both near and far. Our first pod was a very playful mum, calf and male escort who were extremely relaxed considering they had a pod of 10+ males barreling towards them in a hurry! The male escorted his female and calf a short distance away as the bachelor boys rumbled and tumbled in the afternoon sunshine. Extremely noisy exhalations known as trumpeting could be heard as each male tried to outdo each others trumpet as the excitement increased and they moved in towards our bow. The boys were boisterous with multiple pods constantly moving past before others moved in to the area. A few tail slaps a few hundred meters away continued the communication as the boys started to socialise and came in so very close as they welcomed us into the pod. It was a superb day to spend out on the Indian Ocean and as the sun set on the last Sunday in September we wished all the beautiful whales we met today the safest of journeys ahead for the rest of the Western Australia’s Humpback Whale migration south.
