Incredible Perth Humpback Whale interaction unfolded today as a mother whale, her calf and three bachelor males surrounded us for an extraordinarily trusting and intimate interaction. Arriving in the sighting grounds a friendly pec slap welcomed us over to Join The Pod as we noticed all five Humpback Whales surface together including the most precious calf. A lot of twisting and rolling about at the surface enabled us to confirm it was a very healthy male calf. Mother whale had attracted the attention of three males but all was very calm and social as they followed each other around playfully with one of the males maintaining his spot closest to the mother whale.
Approaching our vessel with curiosity, we remained still and drifted as they now took over the interaction and broke down all reactionary distances. It was phenomenal to be so close and enjoy seeing the curiosity and playful nature of these precious Humpbacks. A close interaction like today is one we will always treasure to have the trust of completely wild whales including a mother and her new calf. She was using us as a distraction to keep the bachelor males settled and prevent the competitive energy of these males from increasing as the last thing she wanted today was an all out competition pod to form. Instead, she stayed close to us and kept the males preoccupied as they instead focused on all socialising together.
The little male calf was cheeky and wanted a feed of milk, but mum wasn’t allowing that with these males all around them so she appeared to not allow her calf to feed. In protest the calf would lie straight across mums blowholes on every surfacing to be a nuisance before stepping it up a notch and tail lobbing right in front of the bachelor males. The calf now seemed frustrated these males were interrupting snack time and it was very humorous to watch this youngster have a little tantrum with tail lob after tail lob. Finally mum decided to join in and encourage her calf as she launched into powerful tail lobs and a few tail slaps for good measure to get those bachelor males a little further away from her as it now seemed decided she had chosen who would be her escort male. He remained close to her as they began to move off together and we were in awe of the incredible interaction we had just been part of making memories to last a lifetime!
