The Perth Canyon was shining once again on yet another magnificent day and Australasian Gannets escorted us towards the continental shelf where our search began for the hazy distant blow of the Blue. Searching carefully we could see the occasional tiny Wilsons Storm Petrel looking for a morsel on the surface and a Gannet scanning carefully above us. Straight ahead and just like a rocket the powerful seven meter blow of a Blue Whale raced skyward and could be easily seen, off we went! A very relaxed and young Blue greeted us on our arrival in the area and seemed to be resting in-between downtimes with little movement from the original sighting area. Everyone jumped when she resurfaced a short distance behind us and she almost seemed pleased to have caught us all unaware as the turquoise blue shine showed a perfect example of how they coined their name.
The bird activity started to increase slightly as we moved further along the Perth Canyon and a resting Albatross was observing the fifty or so Gannets in the area that were diving on schools of baitfish. Generally where there are fish and birds we can almost always guarantee the Dolphins won’t be too far away and sure enough the porpoising sturdy bodies of Offshore Bottlenose Dolphins raced towards us. The whole pod eventually surrounded our vessel with approximately 100 individuals seeming to enjoy a bit of social time right next to and in front of us. Amongst the Offshore Bottlenose there were also a few beautifully marked Common Dolphins with their big yellow tinged bellies who had also joined the afternoon feed of fish.
