The easterly winds create crystal clear waters just off the coast of Perth which allowed us to recognise the moment today a young and hungry Humpback calf was feeding from mum in only ten meters of water. After slowly approaching our vessel the young calf decided all this curious looking had him rather hungry and as mums dark shadow outlined the seabed below we could see the white belly of her calf as he twisted to his side so he could easily reach mums milk. After only a few minutes he raced back up to the surface for one quick breath before racing back down to mum for some more milk… all Children seem to know you have to be quick while the food is around!
Remarkably a Humpback calf can easily consume up to 200 litres of milk per day and when mum has milk that is approximately 48% fat it is slightly difficult to keep your weight gain under control! Thankfully weight and size is exactly what mum wants her calf to grow with and as quickly as possible, this will make the southern migration much easier and allow the calf to grow comfortably in the cooler waters of Antarctica. Our Navy was out again this morning and Hiccups the Bottlenose Dolphin even dropped in for a quick hello while keeping one eye on the fish he was chasing
