Breaching Humpback Whale experience it was onboard both tours today as we were spoilt with spectacular breaching and pec slapping as the lone whale travellers called out for a companion. Onboard our morning tour and also the midday tour we observed a similar scene as amongst the numerous pods meandering through the sighting grounds a lone traveller surfaced and worked hard to be noticed. Launching into breaching repeatedly to firstly get everyones attention, they then rolled onto their side for a followup of pec slapping. Combining these two actions is a powerful message sent to all the other Humpback Whales in the area and can be translated in the Language of the Whales as attention seeking behaviour.
The reason for this attention seeking in this situation is so these lone travellers can find a suitable companion to join with before departing the resting grounds. It can take some time as we observed with the morning breacher who worked extremely hard for over thirty minutes as we lost count of the number of breaches and pec slaps. A few whales nearby were already travelling with a companion so didn’t approach though a few of them did respond wth some breaching and pec slapping of their own. Our midday breacher had success though and all that energy spent breaching was rewarded as another lone traveller approached and now both Humpback Whales were getting to know each other. It appeared they were getting on very well as a few more breaches followed before they began to twist and roll at the surface playfully. Wishing them well we were very confident that these two would stick together. Always a good day to see them find a friend and it makes all that hard work of surface language pay off for these beautiful Humpback Whales.
