Today was a special day as we welcomed onboard our Navy Cadets, witnessed incredible surface language amongst the pods and a very special close encounter on our sunset tour. Departing the harbour this morning we were very excited to welcome onboard our Navy Cadets who were ready to meet our West Australian Humpback Whales. Our fist sighting was a very relaxed mum and calf who were enjoying the morning sun before a very energetic calf a few hundred meters away started tail lobbing, one after the other as he was trying to get a strong message across. It was soon clear who he was communicating towards as a very big bachelor male raced into the area looking for a female to escort down the coast.
He beelined for the mum and calf pod ahead of us and as he got closer and closer mum didn’t seem to mind and welcomed him into the pod for some backup for the long swim back to Antarctica, the protection this male with give the mum and calf is paramount just like the loyalty and protection our Navy Cadets dedicate to Australia. Our family and team are truly grateful to see the next generation of protectors and guardians of our wonderful country Join The Pod to serve and protect what we love so dearly.
Our second tour of the day took some twists and turns quite literally with four seperate pods all communicating as one over a large area. It was spectacular to witness the tail lobs, inverted tail slaps and pec slapping all occurring simultaneously as the Language of the Whales was on full display. The beautiful STS Leeuwin II was out on the water today making a very iconic image with our whale’s tails up in the air like sails themselves. Watching on we observed two main pods pec slapped and tail slapping towards each other with one of the whales having very distinctive Orca attack scarring on his fluke which are known as rake marks. It doesn’t seem to have held him back though as he was enormous and healthy, one of the most boisterous out of all the other Humpback Whales today.
These two pods slowly came together making a big party pod of about eight whales all socialising and swimming together enjoying their time in the sighting grounds. The late afternoon sunset tour was special as we arrived in the sighting grounds and were immediately approached by two of the bachelor males we recognised from earlier in the day and they were excited to see us! Surrounding us for almost an hour we were amazed to see just how interested they were in all of our Pod Members onboard and incredibly playful with big trumpets, a couple of cheeky tail lobs and big eyes starring back our way. Drifting together it was such a special interaction which was made even more fun as we watched the boys play with the seaweed, carrying it carefully on the rostrum and pectoral fins.
Further pods began to move in on the area and with that the boys seemed to be all worn out with their social time with us as they move to a more private area to rest. Three other pods converged induing a precious mum and calf who were looking for the perfect evening snooze location. The mum was relaxed and her baby was boisterous as the little one breached into the sunset which completed our already incredible day absolutely perfectly.
