Best things to do in Perth must include a journey to see our incredible Humpback Whales from late August to November each year in the waters off Perth. A beautiful morning welcomed us to the sighting grounds as we met our first pod for the morning and were in for a lovely surprise. The tiny calf surfaced and showed off a stunning fluke with the top left side white with tiny black speckles! It is one of the most beautiful flukes we have ever seen and as mum surfaced we could see all her white dots and speckles along her peduncle muscle and it appeared mums unique genes have been passed on to her calf. The very pretty pod then made their way over to us and we were thrilled to have the mother whale present her calf to us in this way, one of the most memorable and meaningful Humpback Whale interactions you can enjoy. It was special to have them so close as they swam circles around us as we drifted and the most perfect view of that unique little fluke was able to be enjoyed and also documented with many identification images of both mum and calf captured for our catalogue.
The secondary pod we enjoyed meeting was a mother whale surrounded by five boys who were all trying to get her attention with one in particular repeated pec slapping to show off, a very flirty pod! Our midday tour was all about the bouncy babies and a brief sighting of our Southern Right Whales from yesterday who are still enjoying their time in the area. One adult launched into breaching and pec slapping while a second responded with powerful tail lobs. Amongst all the commotion was two mum and calves with one escort as well in the mix who had joined together for a social interaction. The calves revelled in the opportunity to play as they showed off to each other with pec slapping, tail lobs and breaching. It was a lovely way to complete our midday tour with this social pod and see them all enjoying their day in the warm spring sunshine.
Our afternoon tour we enjoyed the company of two mums and calves socialising together happily as they made the most of their time in the resting grounds. Practicing tail lobs was the theme and even one of the mums joined in before they headed off and joined with the Bottlenose Dolphins who had come over to play. It was beautiful to watch, but our attention was distracted by a female tail lobbing just ahead of us as she warned the approaching pod to steer clear from their resting area. Seeming dominant at first and wanting her space we were very surprised to see her heading straight for us but on the next surfacing it all made sense, it was the same beautiful mum and calf from this morning! She seemed excited to see us as she immediately resumed the same behaviour as this morning, swimming circles around and around us with her beautiful baby. It was a heartwarming interaction and an important example of how our whales can recognise the sound of our vessel and if we treat them with respect a friendship can be built for future interactions.
