Fremantle Whale Watching on a perfect day with gentle, curious Humpback Whales made for the perfect way to complete the last day of winter. A big blue sky stretched out and met a turquoise sea as we arrived in the sighting grounds and a very special Humpback Whale surfaced with a friend. She was enormous and the width of her fluke was incredible to observe as she manoeuvred to begin tail flailing much to our amazement. A behaviour observed usually further north in warmer waters, tail sailing is a means of thermoregulation which enables the whales to control their core body temperature by releasing excess body heat. The fluke is gently floated above the waters surface and the blood vessels located close to the surface of the skin are able to release excess body heat, a perfect way to keep cool! Today it appeared to be more focused on stretching out and relaxing as she drifted with us in only twelve meters of water and due to her immense size wasn’t able to fully stretch out easily.
Our midday tour started with excitement as a young whale was travelling with a pod of playful Bottlenose Dolphins. Twisting, turning and chasing after each other we watched on with much amusement as the young Humpback then decided we were rather interesting. An enormous spy hop just of our bow captured us all by surprise as she then started to swim around and under us, trumpeting excitedly with each surfacing. Rolling onto her back and showing off her belly we could confirm she was a female and what a lovely character she was! Continuing on with playtime, she loved spy hoping right alongside us before dancing towards our stern and back to the front again. She was in need of a friend and scanning around we noticed an incoming pod, funnily enough so did she as her focus moved towards this approaching whale. It took a little time but soon both were within fifty meters swimming straight towards each other. A longer downtime resulted in a surfacing with both whales side by side, they seemed very pleased to have found each other! Wishing them well it was a perfect example of one of the ways whales go from travelling solo to finding a friend to journey with for the long migrations they undertake every year.
