Humpbacks sailing southbound are bringing our coastline alive with the spectacular Language of the Whales as we were witness to today. Pods had arrived overnight and were on the march as our first sighting was a mum and her calf resting quietly away from the other whales. The calf launched into a full body breach excitedly before mum settled her little one as the number of boisterous bachelor males that were in their vicinity was growing. The boys were competing and everywhere we looked multiple blows could be sighted as pods shuffled in every direction in the peak hour migration traffic this morning. One competition pod of four rumbled past while a more defensive escort male protected his female a little further away with impressive tail lobs and tail slapping. It was now time for a mother whale who was located a long distance away to teach her calf how to attract attention towards yourself.
She launched into spectacular breaching and her baby enthusiastically followed with her as both mum and calf worked together and made some noise! It was great to confirm this was a female calf so an even more important lesson from mum as she taught her daughter how to attract attention towards yourself by breaching and pec slapping to call in the males. The mother was enormous and her large, healthy size indicated she was a mature mum who would have had many calves over her lifetime so far. She needed a male escort and was doing her best to get the attention of all the bachelor males who were in the area today and what a brilliant display it was for our Pod Members to witness how a mother teaches her daughter the language of attracting attention towards yourself. A very important lesson to learn as for this female calf she will one day have a calf of her own to look after and will need the protection and support the comes with travelling with a protective male escort.
