A beautiful morning greeted us with blue skies, calm sea and a gentle warm breeze sending us on our way to the Humpback Whale sighting grounds. A small ripple on the waters surface quickly gave way to a large exhalation as a female Humpback and her calf surfaced to breathe in unison. They were quickly followed by another mother and her calf right alongside them, we had a very special mother/calf pod of four travelling along the coast. The memory a female Humpback has of her migratory route is phenomenal and she will pass this knowledge down to her calf with each new resting ground they visit. The resting ground may be a new place of discovery for the calf but the females have been visiting our coastline just off Perth for many, many years. A few moments after joining them we heard a commotion just to our right as we looked over to see a calf breaching along with his mum a few hundred meters away. Perhaps they had been feeding and resting quietly when the pod we had joined disturbed their little area… the breaching certainly created a large splash!
The response from our pod was of much curiosity as the calves shuffled in front of their mums to get a better look and listen to the pod not far away. After a few breaches the second pod continued with their morning and retained their reactionary distance from the busy pod of four travelling alongside us. We made our way over to say a quick hello and capture a few identification images of the female and her calf who continued to rest quietly, only being by themselves they were not too interested in socialising with the other pod a bit further away. Wishing them well we continued to travel with our curious pod of four who were enjoying their morning travelling on the Humpback Highway. A long journey ahead will not deter these two females as they are on the cusp of completing an almost six month long migration and round trip of 13,000 kilometres all without feeding. Their calves both looked healthy and strong with one of the calves having a beautiful white belly and we decided to name her in memory of a special person with a very beautiful name… Charlotte.
16 thoughts on “In Memory of Charlotte”
Thank you for a great day! And for honouring Charlotte by naming the calf after her. Now if only I could tell which calf is Charlotte.
Hi Dawn & Daryl
Charlotte’s the one closest to the red & white fairway bouy and the one you are taking a photo of in the foreground.(blowing you a whale kiss)
Our condolences and we wish you and your family all the best for the future, just remember your Mum will have a Western Australian Humpback swimming up and down our coastline for decades to come named in her honour.
Kind Regards
Whale Watch Western Australia
So sweet and warm words!
Thankyou Teresa
Thank you for a wonderful experience, we had a great day and I may well take you up on the offer of a crew shirt and come and whale spot for you one day!
It was very special to share time with the calves and mums, a real privilege.
Hi Deb & Byron
Thankyou for the kind words, it was a very good spot and we are thrilled you experienced a true Whale Watch encounter.
look forward to having you back onboard soon
Kind Regards
Whale Watch Western Australia
Captain, Leanne & girls,
(Sorry forgot names already)
Thank you for a wonderful day, the second attempt was definitely a success, to see mothers and toddlers humpbacks for the first time was amazing and to see the two whales breaching in the distance…Fab.
As a crew you were all very inviting friendly and informative, you made the whole occasion very pleasurable and memorable.
“Highly recommended”
Thanks a million, hope to see you again!
Carol & Fred Jones
Hi Fred
Thankyou for the review and kind words. Yesterday’s non sighting was the first since September but as we move to the tail end of the migration the lines of Whales coming through to diminish. Today’s numerous pods showed a new line of Whales on the Humpback Highway so we expect to keep sighting them up until December but the Whales will let us know. we look forward to having you back onboard again soon.
Kind regards
Whale Watch WA
Dear Leanne and Team,
As well for us the second attempt. We were lucky today seeing and listening to the Wales. It was very impressive to see these wonderful creatures. It was great going out with you all. You really made me even more curious about the Wales, as you have so much knowledge about them.
Thank you so much and hope to see you again
Kind regards
Victoria and Simone
Hi Victoria & Simone
Glad you could rejoin today as yesterday was disappointing though we do need to remind ourselves these are wild creatures and that is why we have a guarantee in place.
We are very grateful you found the commentary interesting as there is so much more to find out about the Language of the Whales.
Look forward to having you back onboard soon
Kind Regards
Whale Watch Western Australia
A really awesome journey! We were really enjoying it! My friend from China, my 8 yrs old daughter and myself:-) I was so excited when I went through those photoes I took during the jouney and found two of them are perfect snapshots of some lovely calf’s tail. Oh oh what a beautiful surprise!
These creatures are as emotional as human being! I just love them so much and wish them all the best! What a shame on those Japanese who treat these fantastic creatures so so cruely! I do really hope they could stop their misconduct immediately!
The service and onsite narrative are as perfect as the meeting with these fantastic whales! I also appreciate for pleasant chats with two attendants!
I myself will also post a recount of today’s journey on my own Chinese social media website, where I have a small group of 149 followers:-)
Definitely it won’t be long before I will be back with you guys for another watch journey.
Thanks again! Enjoy your night~~~
Hi Teresa
A pleasure to have you onboard and we look forward to having you back onboard again very soon.
Delighted you were enjoyed yourself so much, they are wonderful creatures.
Kind Regards
Whale Watch Western Australia
Thank you for that special experience and the great photos. Perfect service!!!
Hi Annette
Thankyou for the kind words and it was a pleasure to have you onboard.
Kind Regards
Whale Watch Western Australia
Thank you for the wonderful experience. We were here for the second time. Love it very much.
Kenneth Teo
Hi Kenneth
Thankyou for the lovely comments, pleasure to have you as a Pod Member and don’t forget your discount with us next time you tours Kind Regards
Whale Watch Western Australia