Guess who was back again? The wonderful Minke whale that we sighted exactly one week ago! What first caught our attention was two juvenile Humpback whales who were pec and tail slapping in the distance and once we arrived we soon found out why. This cheeky Minke whale was interacting with the Humpback whales and as soon as we arrived he focused his attention on us, circling around our vessel for one hour! The juvenile Humpbacks seemed a bit jealous that the Minke was getting all of the attention so they too came over to our vessel to say hello and it was amazing.
Having both whale species coming in so close to our bow and showing fascination with our vessel and all of our guests onboard was incredibly special. Another big surprise was a big female Humpback surfacing with the two younger juvenile whales a bit later on in our interaction… we were so focused on our Minke friend that we didn’t notice her approach! Since Geographe Bay has lower Humpback numbers at the moment the whales that are in the bay are looking for a bit of protection while they wait for a few more Humpbacks to arrive. The two juveniles sighted today are the same two that were sighted on Sunday so we can see that they are certainly waiting in the protection of Geographe Bay longer than usual… not that we mind.
ID Log
Date – 13.9.16
Species – Minke
Lat – 33 . 30. 59 Long – 115 . 15 . 29
Notes – One individual who was interacting with Humpbacks and our vessel for one hour