In the shadows of Hillarys Boat Harbour we had a magnificent morning with the whales of Western Australia as the first Humpback calves of our southern migration were sighted with much excitement and surprise! Arriving slightly earlier than in previous seasons, these two little ones were sighted happily swimming alongside their mums and enjoying the beautiful day we were whale watching Hillarys. Our first interaction was with two large adults travelling in an escort pod who seemed interested in everything happening around them and showed off a perfect double fluke dive. The first mother and calf pod were then sighted with baby playing with a couple of the local Bottlenose Dolphins. The young Dolphin calf was breaching and fluke slapping towards the Humpback calf… very protective of his mum and a wonderful example of the Language of the Whales™ from these babies!
Mum then began to make her way towards us so both could have a good look at everyone, it was then that we noticed yet another mother and calf pod just to our right who were also making an approach. Seeming to be taking turns in checking out the boat each pod had a good look before continuing to return back to their morning of resting and feeding in the sheltered waters. A breach launching skyward was seen to our left as a young juvenile female caught our attention along with her travel buddy. Unfortunately for this young lady we could see her dorsal fin was missing and on closer inspection we could rule out Orca attack due to her fluke being very clean and also no obvious rake teeth marks. It appears that this young Humpback Whale may have survived an entanglement with familiar rope scarring and even some sunburn scars along her back. Thankfully, she was in good spirits and seemed very healthy with her scarring appearing to be older and we hope to re-sight her in future season when whale watching Hillarys.
