Today was a very fun day with many escort pods sighted which always adds a different energy to the environment. The first mother and calf sighted today had only recently had a male Humpback approach them and try to interact with the female, but she was having none of it! Coming in close to our vessel she tried to keep the male away from her and her calf by putting our vessel in the way of his approach. This continued for a while with the female moving away and then returning back towards us until a bit of surface activity from another pod encouraged her to start moving away from the area we were in which was becoming increasingly busy with other escort pods arriving!
One female took the opportunity with so many other pods around to encourage her calf to practice some communication and we sighted a wonderful display of peduncle, pec and tail slapping. While watching these two practice another pod surfaced right next to us and we were in for a big surprise as we watched a 15 meter female surface with her large calf and male escort too.
She was massive! A big and healthy female who had a calf that was in perfect health and a male escort covered in battle scares… the only thing that made this moment even better was how interested this pod was in us.
She was full of so much trust towards us and confidence that she put her calf on her left side which was closest to us and approached only a few meters away, circling around our vessel and staying with us for a while. It certainly felt that we were in the presence of a Dinosaur of The Deep™ with this large female and the amount of travelling up and down the West Australian coastline she would have achieved during her lifetime.. makes you wonder what stories she could tell!
ID Log
Date – 27.10.16
Species – Humpback
Lat – Undisclosed Long – Undisclosed
Notes – Female with young calf who was very skinny along backbone
