Humpback Bachelor Pod

The Humpback Bachelor Pod is full of power, energy and on many occasions fun! Today we firstly enjoyed the company of three pods who had converged together in the resting grounds, two mother/calf pods and a mother/calf/escort pod also. It was a beautiful morning as the calves performed a couple of breaches, displaying their excitement to the other whales being so close. The large male escort was focused on protecting his female and was keeping a close eye on proceedings as a powerful Navy ship cruised past our starboard side, so silent for such a large vessel. The fourth pod we travelled with for a little while was very interesting, two adults with around 80 meters in-between each other. Normally whales will travel very close, side by side and we could tell that this pod were in the process of separating and going different ways. A couple of powerful tail lobs from one of the whales encouraged the second whale to divert and we also did the same, allowing this now lone traveller to focus in on the migration ahead.

The horizon lit up with blow after blow, a large pod was moving as one and we excitedly approached the area. It was a Humpback bachelor pod with 12+ males travelling together. Simply superb to watch as each male would surface and in the still conditions the powerful exhalation was easily heard. They welcomed us into their pod and in a matter of moments we were right in and amongst these males as they surrounded our vessel and we all moved forward towards Rottnest Island. There was a little push and shove here or there amongst the males, even an occasional fluke swipe as they travelled together. Safety in numbers is always important and the young males have lost a lot of weight after many weeks of constant competition and physical exhaustion. Time to head back south, where the fridge of Antarctica is full of krill and waiting. Today it appeared that these bachelor males no longer had girls on their mind, it was krill that was calling!






























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