Augusta Humpback tours have started and today we met many of last years calves all grown up as the yearlings and juveniles are the first to visit Flinders Bay. It was another beautiful morning as we made our way out into the sighting grounds and began our search for this mornings visitors. There were multiple pods in the bay enjoying a morning sleep in as the youngsters took the opportunity to rest after a big swim from Antarctica. One young whale in particular showed some interest towards us as he approached curiously and moved up towards our bow. A few minutes later he surfaced on our port side after swimming underneath us for a closer look at the Steep Point. Settling back into his surrounds we began to move away from the area to continue our search when this cheeky youngster launched into big breaching and lit up Flinders Bay.
The white water was sent flying as breach after breach flowed effortlessly with the yearling calling out to anyone who may have been listening. The younger whales are always on the lookout for a companion to join with before undertaking the next stage of their long journey. Safety in numbers is important as even todays breaching Humpback showed that he was an Orca attack survivor with old rake marks on his skin. Created by Orca teeth dragging across the Humpback Whales skin these unique scars tell us a little bit more about the story of each whale and their ability to defend themselves from the oceans apex predator. Breaching and head lunging continued as this Humpback specialised in the spectacular barrel roll breach as his entire body twisted around before landing with a big belly splash. It didn’t appear any other young whales were in close proximity as no return in surface language was observed but with all this noise it won’t take long before this young whale attracts a friend for the journey north.
