The Humpback Whale love story unfolded today as we watched escort pods and their romantic displays in Flinders Bay. On the long migration north it is important to find a mate, someone you can buddy up with and keep each other company along with continuing the next generation. The females travelled with their male escorts today with many resting calmly, hardly moving far and each surfacing had them nuzzled next to each other. The males will be keeping an alert eye to everything happening around them and any possible males that could try and take their girl away from them. This morning it appeared that exactly this had happened as defensive tail lobs were sighted from both pods either side of us as they communicated the Language of the Whales™. The escort pod just inside the bay also began to tail lob and roll over for some inverted tail lobbing as the male worked hard to defend his female and deter the approach of other males.
The afternoon sited further escort pods except for a slight difference… a young female Humpback was in search of her Romeo. At first she seemed most interested in us as she swam around the vessel after performing a beautiful breach. Seeming to see that we were not her ideal mate she popped her head above the surface and looked around, where could her Romeo be? A ruffle of white water up ahead alerted us to the approach of another pod who raced over in excitement… they had found their Juliet! Approaching with enthusiasm and energy they swam directly underneath us to reach her, so close that we could feel their breath on our cheeks as they exhaled powerfully. They chased each other for a little while around the vessel until finally the female had made her decision, the second male slowly moved away to search for his girl in the bay. Our Humpback Whale love story completed today as both our Romeo and Juliet joined and began to swim away together into the sunset, a special way to complete a special day in Flinders Bay.
