Augusta Whale Watch Season can be enjoyed from late May through to August as thousands of Humpback Whales migrate through Flinders Bay. Today was a busy day for the Humpbacks with multiple competition pods and a few social pods filling the bay. It was wonderful to see so many whales on the move and the energy was high as males competed amongst each other for the females attention. During their time in Augusta many of the whales are very competitive with much time spent searching for females, competing and escorting their new mates north to warmer waters. During every tour we meet multiple whales and each one has a unique personality and character with each pod having their own itinerary for the day ahead.
Mostly it involves competing and migrating but every now and again it will also involve more social activities. Today the local Bottlenose Dolphins joined in with a pod of Humpback Whales for some social time as they twisted and rolled together. It is always lovely to see how gentle the Humpback Whales can be when interacting with the much smaller dolphins. The dolphins have great speed and agility which the Humpbacks try their best to keep up with and mimic their every manoeuvre. A huge spy hop showed off the beautiful rostrum of one of the whales as he took a better look at what was happening above the oceans surface. The Augusta whale watch season is at its peak during the winter months and it was another wonderful winters day with the whales.
A big thank you also to the Leigh family for collecting some fantastic images today. Citizen science is a big part of cetacean research due to the whales elusive nature and vast distances they travel. Identifying individual whales is important to monitor the population and when everyone joins in to collect the perfect fluke shot along with dorsal fin and unique scarring images we are able to work together to collect the perfect ID images needed to recognise that whale in the future. It is wonderful to have our Pod Members join in with our onboard research and continue to build the knowledge and understanding of these magnificent whales.
