The Western Australian Humpback Highway is continuing to rumble up the coastline as breaching Humpbacks began to surround us this morning. Gently cruising through Flinders Bay, our first encounter was with a beautiful Southern Right Whale who calmly approached us for a closer look before continuing on her way. Just ahead breaching had begun and we watched on as competitive Humpbacks charged forward, the conversation was well underway. It appeared an escort pod was being approached by a bachelor male as the two whales breach one after the other, this encouraged a nearby by juvenile to start breaching as well. Further up on the horizon even more plumes of white water could be sighted as the three Humpbacks joined together and began to compete and flex their muscles, displaying to see who was the strongest of the two.
A few more breaches from the surrounding pods seemed to complete the conversation and we watched on as the two males began to challenge each other and the female lead the chase. A high intensity conversation and it was amazing to watch as the Western Australian Humpback Highway continued to flow as we transition from the peak of the northern migration and start seeing larger breaks in the “Highway” traffic. Our Southern Right Whale made us smile as we met her again on our journey back, seeming to have been watching the mornings proceedings from afar. We wonder what the Southern Right Whales must think of the Humpbacks intense comp pods and energetic surface activity, too much intensity for a sleepy Saturday morning perhaps!
