October Whale Watching in Perth is a fun time to meet the Humpback mums and calves with a few bachelor males still around doing a great job escorting these pods southbound to Antarctica. Smooth calm waters greeted us on our way out towards the sighting grounds this morning with lovely weather forecasted for the whole day, perfect conditions for spotting and it didn’t take long until we came across a resting mum and calf. Moving further into the last bit of October we will see a slight change in energy levels and sighting numbers from earlier on in the month as the traffic on the Humpback freeway starts to slow slightly. Mother whales will also start to look thinner as these female have pushed the limits on their time away from the feeding grounds with their bodies starting to show the affects on no food intake for multiple months. Our first mum and calf pod were resting this morning and making the most of the relaxing conditions with our second pod observed travelling with a sneaky escort male hiding under mum and calf for two of their surfacing’s before he showed his dorsal.
This trio was also resting and taking it easy before the next stage of their journey south and while the adults relaxed the calf seemed a little bored so found himself some seaweed to play with by rolling around the surface trying to scoop it up while also blowing raspberries at the surface before moving onto mini bubble veils which all looked like a lot of fun! Further mums and calves were also enjoying the beautiful day this afternoon as one pod rested but just ahead we noticed four seperate pods converging. An escort male was in the mix and it didn’t take long before the conversation started to flow amongst these pods. A big breach from the escort male followed up with inverted tail slapping caused the nearby mum and calf to decide they didn’t want to interact with this pod as they swam straight towards and then underneath us to move away. The calf travelling with the escort male was boisterous and launched into some cheeky tail lobs before the pod approached us for a closer look. October whale watching in Perth is always a fun time to meet this next generation of Western Australian Humpback Whales and wish them the safest of journeys ahead.
