World class whale watching can be found in Flinders Bay, Augusta onboard Whale Watch Western Australia as thousands of Humpback Whales migrate to their northern breeding and calving grounds located in the Kimberly. Competition pods abound during this time of year and they are the essence of the northern migration as males compete to pair up with females for a brief courtship before the process is repeated again. Our morning experience began with Dolphin/Humpback interactions before double breaching on the horizon had us mesmerised, the female was calling in the males! Sure enough a large adult female was breaching to attract the attention of nearby males, even though she was already travelling with a male escort. Trying to discourage their approach he was also breaching and head lunging creating a very rare spectacle of double breaching Humpback Whales… Whale Watching Australia at its very best!
Two adults we met later on turned right around to face us and swam directly at the bow. Waiting and watching we could see them approaching us and it wasn’t long before this curious pod were surrounding our vessel and covering us in Whale Kisses! Our afternoon was also filled with rambunctious males as they charged through the bay towards the many other pods surrounding us resulting in many peduncle and tail slaps from the neighbouring pods to defend the females they were travelling with. An overly curious Antarctic Skua came in for an extra close look and almost landed on the bow a number of times as he seemed to try and steal the show from the Humpbacks!
