The first day of spring began with much excitement as a rare Minke Whale was sighted on a special day of whale watching. Two adult Humpbacks had been on the move when they took great interest in us and moved straight over to say hello, swimming around to our bow and then stern to investigate our propulsion. They seemed slightly distracted and quickly we found out why… a beautiful Dwarf Minke Whale surfaced right on our bow! The gorgeous sleek rostrum broke the surface as one of the smallest baleen whale species to visit Western Australian waters came over to check us out. The white pectoral fins glowed below the surface as this cheeky Minke circled around and around us, each surfacing was anticipated with more excitement than the last to sight a wonderfully rare species.
Although the Southern Hemisphere population is regarded to be healthy, sighting a Minke Whale in Western Australian waters is very rare as their migratory pattern and movement is not well known at this stage. Identification images have been collected and we hope this lovely Minke will teach us more about the movement of the Western Australian Minke Whale should he be re-sighted again. The two Humpback Whales certainly didn’t want the Minke Whale to capture all of the attention as they continued to stick close to us and were enjoying the time relax. The local male Bottlenose Dolphins including popular Swan River resident male Hii greeted us in the Fremantle Fishing Boat Harbour after a morning of chasing their breakfast and eating the freshest of seafood! A wonderful southern Humpback migration awaits as the whale populations of Western Australia begin their movement south to the feeding grounds of summer in Antarctica.
