It was a Rottnest Whale Watch Adventure Tour on a magnificent morning as the local Bottlenose Dolphins joined a pod of six exuberant Humpback Whales for a social Sunday. Pods could be sighted along the horizon and on approaching our first interaction we had two enormous adults moving towards two seperate pods of escorts who were both a little bit younger than the mature adults. It was very interesting to observe these three seperate pods meet for the first time, the adults certainly had the energy and were actively chasing the younger escort pods around the vessel. The younger whales at first appeared to be a little shy of the mature whales, perhaps their energy and excitement was a little too much for the more relaxed individuals. Either way, the older whales persisted and continued to actively follow the escort pods as a further pod of four surfaced two hundred meters behind us with some energy of their own, the whales were in the mood for fun.
Suddenly, the local Bottlenose Dolphins appeared and it completely changed the mood of all six whales. The relaxed, easy going nature of the playful dolphins allowed the younger whales to relax and begin to play. Flukes and pectorals were going everywhere as the Humpbacks did their best to keep up with the active Bottlenose Dolphins with much twisting and turning. The boys in this pod were boisterous and they would surface with a hug trumpeting exhalation, excited to be socialising and flexing those big muscles towards each other and the female Humpbacks in the pod. The dolphins were cheeky and deliberately led the whales towards the bow, they will often perform this behaviour and get the whales to follow them around the vessel. It was incredible to be so very close to these beautiful cetaceans on such a wonderful spring morning in the waters off Rottnest Island, a fun and exciting day with a special birthday celebrations onboard too!
