Cape Leeuwin breaching Humpbacks where in full force today with some magnificent Whale Watch action on this mornings tour. Flinders Bay has been a little quite over the last couple of days with many escort pods and juveniles not wanting interaction after their 2000 nautical mile journey to the Cape Leeuwin region where the two oceans meet, the Indian & Southern Oceans.
Our journey took us 6nm west of South East Rocks (strangely named as they are the most south western point of the Australian mainland) as many pods and up to 70 Whales were sighted but many with long down time alerting us to respect their space and be patient.
Convergence of 4 pods rewarded our patience as one Whale utilised our sound footprint to surprise an escort pod and we had an incredible breach very close to our bow followed by a series of tail slapping as the male in the escort pod was letting our covert Whale know all about how big and strong he was and any attempts to lure his female away from him was going to be met with some strong competition.
We anticipated further action from the converging pods but it did not eventuate except for some very large Whales breaching just off the Cape Leeuwin Lighthouse that could be seen in the distance.
A beautiful Albatross visited us again this morning and glided peacefully over the swells with precision and as we travelled back into Flinders Bay we joined with a couple of juveniles that were enjoying some rest time prior to there next leg of this epic Humpback migration.
Most Whales will migrate the 13,000km round trip from Antarctica and return each year without feeding and the mothers nurturing their calves, an incredible journey of endurance bordering on miraculous and we are privileged to witness such a small part of this journey.
There is nothing quite like Western Australian Humpback Whales and the Cape Leeuwin breaching we witnessed today is something we wish to share with the world.
