Today was Whale Watch Western Australia’s inaugural tour from Fremantle and has been put down on record as our most wonderful tour to date! On our departure our very first sighting was of a happy pod of Bottlenose Dolphins who came right up to our bow to have a good look and following the dolphins was a very large sea lion who was hoping the dolphins would lead him to an easy breakfast. After spending a bit of time with this happy and unique marine mammal combination we continued on our search for the Dinosaurs Of The Deep… and little did we know about the surprise that waited ahead!
Further out in the distance we sighted the unmistakably tall blow of a mammal that is one of the largest living creatures on our planet, the Pygmy Blue Whale. Approaching the area of our last sighting we watched and waited carefully before seeing once again the massive “whoosh” as an exhalation of air raced six meters into the sky and a massive submarine like movement appeared breaking the surface and showing us the mottled blue body of an amazing Pygmy Blue Whale. Stunned to say the least! What an amazing moment and to our great delight we soon discovered that this was not one but three Pygmy Blues, a mother, her calf and a male escort.
All three calmly moved through the protected waters and it is an incredibly rare and special opportunity to see and be with a mother and calf Pygmy Blue with a protective male escort. While we watched them cruise out into the Indian Ocean just up ahead we noticed the very familiar arch of a surfacing Humpback and the resulting tail dive that follows. Two very young juvenile Humpback whales were enjoying some rest time and although it looked like they had both left their mothers only recently they showed some very cheeky and curious behaviours towards us.
After an amazing tour and a list full of special sightings we also enjoyed seeing a few non marine mammal things on our way back to the marina. An Australian navy submarine was a very special sight and made us all laugh when we wondered were it had disappeared to while we were busy watching the whales before remembering… it is a submarine after all! Australian Navy ship HMAS Arunta was also out on this magic morning and what a special day to begin a wonderful season ahead.
