Whale of a Tail

A whale of a tail on a beautiful morning as the story of todays experience unfolded. Our first meeting was with a very relaxed pod of juveniles who had found the perfect place to take it easy and well away from the hustle and bustle of pods moving through the area further up ahead. These two lovely young whales came over to have a good look at us and seemed to be interested in why we had stopped to look at them. Juveniles are still learning all the time and they seemed bemused that we had taken such an interest towards them. Seeing that we were friendly and providing them plenty of reactionary distance, they then proceeded to approach the bow. Today it was all about the whale tails and it is always beautiful to witness them lift those flukes so gracefully before diving into the depths again. Every fluke is unique to that individual whale and is their fingerprint, a perfect way to keep a record of the whales we meet on each of our journeys. Perth provides a wonderful opportunity to not only sight magnificent wildlife but many other exciting moments that pop up throughout our season including an incredible fighter jet powering past in the blink of an eye.

Our second interaction was with two mature adults travelling in an escort pod as they moved towards Rottnest Island and we are sure they had krill on their mind! Soon it will be time to begin feeding in Antarctica during the summer feeding season, but first these whales must make that long migration back south. In the meantime it is best to relax and unwind in the sheltered waters provided by Western Australia’s coastline and these two were enjoying the calm conditions. Two other escort pods also began to approach the area and we watched a slight tail slap from the pod furtherest to our starboard side. Suddenly, the female Humpback in our escort pod began to raise her fluke skyward as she hovered upside down in a talented Humpback headstand just meters from our bow. Ever so gracefully hanging upside down, she made it look easy. Now that we had the ID shot of the underside of this females fluke it was time for a name and thankfully we had a birthday celebration onboard for a perfect name inspiration… welcome to The Pod Jacqui!