Perth’s only genuine whale watching is with Whale Watch Western Australia as our family team welcomes you onboard for an educational and meaningful experience as we dedicate our entire year to whale watching over three oceans and eight cetacean species. Today we had the wonderful company of many Humpback Whales as the momentum of the southbound migration continues to increase and stabilise. Our first interaction was with a very curious escort pod who approached and relaxed with us as they hid in the sound footprint of the Steep Point. Eventually they decided to continue on their way as we noticed a commotion just ahead of us, pods were converging. Two mother and calf pods had been found by a rather cheeky and overly confident subadult male. He was very determined to show off to the ladies and being so young he wasn’t making the greatest impression. One of the mothers started “snaking” a behaviour where they move their fluke side to side just like a snake to clear the water space behind them.
Some trumpets were made as well by the mother Humpback looking for some personal space for herself and her calf but yet again the young male didn’t listen and let his hormones get the better of him. Coming in closer and rolling over to show his belly off to the mother whale he was ever hopeful this may impress her… nope! Understandably this very large and mature female has seen these moves all before and right now her main priority is her calf, our cheeky boy will just have to wait. Seeming to understand things weren’t going as planned the young male took notice of a lone whale travelling a short distance away. She was a younger female and in his excitement he began to breach spectacularly in front of the Perth city skyline. It was very impressive for all of our pod members onboard but the younger female wasn’t keen on this overly enthusiastic approach. Powerful, defensive tail lobs erupted as she warned the male to keep his distance. We wished our new mate all the best, we are sure with all that enthusiasm he will eventually find his perfect female but may just need to wait a few more hours for the next pods to move through.
