The largest Humpback Whale migration in the world is right here in Western Australia. Our population of over 45,000 Humpback Whales journey every season along the WA coastline from ice to fire and back again as they live and thrive in the extremes of two environments. The ice of Antarctica during the summer months as the Humpbacks feast on krill while the fire of the intense heat of the Kimberly region rears the next generation in the Humpbacks nursery grounds. Today was an exceptional day as we were once again surrounded by Humpback Whales. A mother and her calf had attracted the attention of a few males who were jostling for position closer to the female. She kept her poise and managed to keep her calf safe in and amongst the pushing and shoving of the males. Eventually, one of the males managed to win his place closest to the female and began to defend his position, resulting in some frustrated peduncle slaps from one of the other males further down the line.
A pod of three bachelor males approached a lone individual who was tail slapping aggressively. Noticing their approach and looking for a distraction, he continued his surface activity as he swam towards us and to our amazement used our sound footprint for a welcome distraction. Huge tail lobs just off our bow made an enormous noise and although the bachelor pod did catch up with him, he managed to move away quickly in the opposite direction. Our final interaction was with two adults who were in a much more relaxed mood and enjoyed a bit of gentle spy hopping to fully investigate us in the beautiful morning sunshine as we enjoyed another day with the largest Humpback Whale migration in the world.
