Perth Whale Watching In October is a special time as we watch mother Humpback Whales and their 3-4 month old calves relaxing in the resting grounds found just off Perth. Warm easterly winds sent us on our way as we journeyed to the sighting grounds and it wasn’t long before the call went out that Humpback Whales were to our port side. Sure enough, the little exhalation of a small calf floated in the breeze and it was soon followed by moms powerful exhalation. Beginning to build a relationship with this pod it was special to notice that both mother and calf began to take a keen interest towards us and would surface right next to the bow to curiously engage with everyone. She was a younger female and approximately 11-13 meters in length, but looking to be in good health and still a fair amount of energy reserves left on her which is always good to see.
Wishing them well, we continued on and came across a second mother and calf who were in cruise control. Travelling at 4-8 knots and moving steadily through the area we watched the surfacing of mother Humpback and noticed an interesting sign of her migration story. The underside of her tail fluke were covered in the yellow coloured algae also known as skin diatoms that are regularly seen on the northern migration, but not so commonly on the southbound migration. The whales will shed a layer of skin when journeying into the warmer waters which rids themselves of many of these parasites. This female was still carrying a large amount of diatoms on the underside of her fluke which could indicate that she did not travel as far north as the other females to give birth and nurture her calf. Perth Whale watching in October is always full of surprises and we love everyday and the stories that unfold on each of our experiences!
