See Whales in Perth every September to November as thousands of Humpback Whales migrate past the Perth coastline not far from local beaches. Today we were greeted with glassy and calm conditions which made for a beautiful day spent out on the water while we looked for our Humpback Whales, it didn’t take long until we came across a resting mum with her playful calf rolling around on the surface trying to pick up seaweed that was floating nearby. A few cheeky spy hops to look over in our direction to see what we were up to are observed while this sweet young calf was very happy rolling around while waiting for mum to have a little bit more of a sleep in.
We then ventured in towards the shoreline after sighting some breaches from a young calf. Our mother Humpback joined in with some pec slaps encouraging her calf and others to come socialise. A few hundred meters behind us we had over four mother and calf pods doing the same thing, all reacting to this original calf that started the breaching. After the other pods said what they wanted to say through the Language of the Whales we had one mum and calf who wasn’t finished just yet. A couple of big head lunges by mum and spinning breaches from her calf trying to get close to a pod that was nearby but the other pod went into stealth mode and started to head down further into the resting grounds, leaving the spinning breacher without a playmate but not to worry as we are sure another calf will be close by wanting to play soon enough.
The afternoon tour kicked off with a bang or should we say breach with two calves communicating with tail lobs and breaches until a recreational vessel came in towards us a bit too quick resulting in the two calves heading back to their mums and settling down. After this boat left a third mother and calf pod came into the area wanting to meet up with the other two pods. This young calf made his presence known with breach after breach as he was heading straight for the two other calves but with a strong dominate tail lob from one of the mums he knew he wasn’t invited over unfortunately. A little frustrated he did a few more breaches hoping for a response from the fourth pod that we saw ahead of us. The fourth pod wasn’t wanting this calf to come over either, he had just a bit too much energy!
He soon seemed to become a little tired and went back right next to mum for a bit of rest. Just before we were about to leave huge white water in front of us captured our attention so we made our way towards three separate pods all communicating to each other with tail slaps and a side ways breach from one of the calves. Our adventurous juvenile Hammerhead Shark was spotted again this afternoon much to everyone’s surprise and a lovely way to complete a special day out on the water. After all that action it was time to head back to port where we will get ready for another Humpback filled day tomorrow as we see Whales in Perth for the coming weeks ahead.
