Our Whale Watching Tours in Augusta have been incredible so far this season with hundreds of whale sightings and incredible opportunities to Learn the Language of the Whales™ and today was no exception. A resting Albatross was our first sighting for the morning and due to the stronger winds over the last two weeks he seemed to be taking it easy after being blown in towards the coast. Take off as he paddled his feet as fast as he could and was airborne just as two large Humpbacks Whales surfaced only meters away. These two were swimming together perfectly and showed signs of being a male/female escort pod who seemed to be in a hurry, possibly moving away quickly from that competition pod behind them! Four whales were racing towards us with the female leading the way and three males pushing, charging and jostling for position. They swam towards and underneath us as the males tried to use our large vessel as a distraction and obstacle to slow the others down.
Two other Humpback Whales were further ahead and seemed interested in what was unfolding, as they approached the males slowed down and it was at this important moment one of the males was too distracted by the others and the remaining two males and female continued their competition as they raced towards the reef line. Two of the individuals who had left the area, including one of the males with the unique fluke, joined us close to the Southern Right Whale nursery ground and slowly investigated us. The many reasons why we love our whale watching tours in Augusta is the opportunity to sight two species in one day and the young Southern Right calves of Flinders Bay were putting on a bit of a show. Lifting their flukes above the surface and practicing tail slapping, little Stacka encouraged one of the second Southern Rights in the nursery ground to respond by also doing a few gentle tail slaps of her own.
