Can Whales Fly? Today they certainly could as we observed numerous breaches and the most incredible body lunge that had the pectoral fins clear of the water and this spectacular Humpback Whale airborne! The long pectoral fins often assist the Humpback Whales in their movement below the surface, sometimes acting almost like wings for momentum and directional changes. Today however the pectoral fins were spending a lot more time above the surface than below as the conversations flowed amongst the pods. Our first sighting for the morning was a mum and calf resting quietly with a nearby escort pod cruising towards Rottnest Island. Mums and calves had started to converge a little further over and one youngster began to breach.
The start of the conversation caused a nearby mum to launch into spectacular head lunging and it was superb! She was huge and crashed back down over and over as she tried to clear out the area around her. It did not bother the nearby calf though who continued onwards with very cute breaching and pec slapping for a solid forty minutes, this was one determined baby! The little one wanted to play with the other mum and calf but she continued to do a good job of outmaneuvering them every time they moved her way. It was wonderful to see the commotion amongst all the pods today with a large number having moved into the sighting grounds. Our midday tour was a similar theme with a few resting pods but an escort pod kickstarted the conversations as they exploded with epic body lunging.
It was sensational as one whale in particular skyrocketed so high that the pectoral fins were clear of the water below making for such a unique and powerful image. It setoff a chain reaction amongst the other pods who all started to communicate with breaching, tail lobs and tail slapping amongst the calves. Learning the Language of the Whales takes time but these calves certainly use their time wisely for practice whilst in the sighting grounds. It was also lovely to see the bachelor male from yesterday afternoon with his Orca damaged dorsal fin making him an easy whale to identify. He did a great job in tail lobbing and guarding the mum and calf he was travelling with from two nearby bachelor males who ventured into the area but were unable to find the mum, calf and escort who managed to circle back around theme while using our vessel as a distraction.
