A beautiful day greeted us as we departed Sardine Jetty and made our way towards two large adult Humpback Whales enjoying some rest after such a long migration. The male was covered with plenty of scarring showing us he has had a few competitive battles during his lifetime, the female was much cleaner and a little bit larger with both showing interest towards us. Spending time with them created a trust and when vessel traffic began to move past on their way to Rottnest Island the two both swam directly towards us and kept close, trying to hide in our sound footprint until the traffic went away. They seemed very relaxed with our company and we decided to let them continue their morning relax as we made our way towards some surface activity before a small Hammerhead Shark was sighted briefly on the surface, although small he still won’t be making friends with the whales anytime soon!
The two juveniles who had been communicating towards each other appeared to be warding off the small Hammerhead Shark and also telling each other they weren’t interested in joining up but rather minding their own business. One of the individuals who had a big white belly extending up his flanks moved over towards us to investigate instead and surfaced right on our stern for a better look. Continuing to cruise along he would spend a fair bit of time at the surface watching us and wondering what we were doing on such a fine day, the curious mind of a juvenile Humpback Whale is always wonderful to spend time with. Moving through the same area where the juvenile Hammerhead Shark had been sighted and our curious juvenile Humpback launched into an amazing peduncle slap and seemed startled momentarily… maybe he had been seeing shadows and wanted to get rid of the visiting shark for good so he could relax and enjoy the lovely morning without fishy company. A lovely cruise back towards Sardine Jetty as we took in the sights of the busy Port of Fremantle.
