The Augusta Southern Right Whale Season for 2018 is well and truly underway as little Stacka showed off his very best breaching and fluke slapping skills, which certainly are not bad for a three week old! We had a sneak peak at little Stacka’s lower jaw/chin a week ago when he did a curious spy hop and noticed the white was distinctive and seemed to cover a large area on his chin. Waiting patiently for that special moment where we would have the big reveal and today was the day as he breached with belly pointing towards us and the most gorgeous splash of white covered his belly. A beautiful young whale who has not only good looks but a wonderful personality also starting to form as he enjoyed some Saturday morning “sport” after a feed of milk from mum as they relaxed close to the reef line.
Watching little Stacka playfully interact with his mum we noticed a small movement on the other side of us and instantly recognised little Sunny Flynn, the Humpback Whale calf who was swimming past close by with his mum. Lifting his head high above the water as he surfaced we could see in our images his little eye open and looking straight back at us, wonderful to see him continuing to swim strongly next to mum and his scratches that he collected earlier starting to heal as his skin pigmentation darkens.
Two curious adult Humpbacks decided to swim right up to us and investigate the entire boat as they swam in circles around us. One of the individuals showed old injuries collected from an interaction with Orca and were most likely caused during his first few weeks of life, this young whale was a survivor! A mother Humpback and her yearling were also a surprise sighting today as generally they sighted heading north at the beginning of the northern migration. They were cruising through the bay and stopped for a quick glance at the local Bottlenose Dolphins including little baby Linda who has grown the Dolphin calf who has grown so much since we sighted her last week.
