Humpback Whale battle scars can be sighted during November as the very last of the bachelor males head south sporting an entire breeding seasons worth of new battle scars. A cool and refreshing breeze welcomed us this morning as we cruised out to the sighting grounds, our first pod was beautiful mum and calf taking it easy close to the coast and just in front of the Perth city skyline. It certainly made for a very good photo as mum surfaced with the city behind, they were resting and waiting for the big tankers to move past until they found a perfect spot to rest so we let them be and headed over to another pod sighted a short distance away. Pod number two was also a mum and calf, as we get to the end of our season we will see the last of the mums and calves come through before they are all gone and back in Antarctica feeding away.
This mum and calf had a bit of energy about them with mum following her calf around the surface as she played with seaweed.The calves and adults love to plays with seaweed but especially the calves as mum can sometimes be a little tired and just wants to rest while the calf will then have to amuse themselves until mum has a bit more energy. Just before we left another mum and calf pod popped up right in line with our second pod but was keeping their distance. On our way out for our midday tour we sighted a mum and calf pod not far from the sighting grounds, the young calf was also playing with seesawed as he or she rolled around on the surface just like our calf did this morning.
It seemed to be a seaweed theme today amongst all the little ones! White water ahead caught our attention so we started to make our way to the commotion to find three adult Humpbacks following each other. A flirty female was pec slapping towards the two boys that were right behind her trying to get nice and close to her. The female then calmed down and they started to chase each other a little bit more. It was amazing to see all of the new scarring these males were carrying as areas of their fluke, dorsal fins and pectoral fins had been rubbed raw and were now staring to heal. The males give it their all during the breeding season with countless hours of competition which inflicts many battle scars over the season. Thankfully, they will heal well and these scars will also help us to id these males in future seasons.
