A Humpbacks southbound journey is sighted during the spring months and today we met a mother and her little calf making a steady journey past the Perth coastline. It was a beautiful morning as the Steep Point departed the Fremantle Fishing Boat Harbour while the Whale Watch 1 departed from Hillarys Boat Harbour on our search for the southbound Humpback Whales. Scanning the horizon it was peaceful with scattered recreational vessels making their way out to Rottnest Island for a day in the sun. A distant breach to our starboard side was followed by a second pod to our port as the mother whale breached and landed with a huge splash which quickly got our attention. Approaching the area it seemed she had been startled by a passing vessel and began to settle into a resting rhythm with her calf again.
A Humpbacks southbound journey extends from September to early December as thousands of Humpback Whales make the long trip from the Kimberly regions to return back to the summer feeding grounds of Antarctica. It appears that this season the migration will be completing a little earlier than usual as the gaps in-between each new Humpback arrival begin to grow and the duration spent in the resting grounds starts to shorten. It was great to see both mother and calf in good health as they began to make their way towards Rottnest Island as the expected afternoon sea breeze will cause choppy conditions with the best resting grounds going to be tucked in close to Rottnest. The female was older and after many journeys along the Western Australian coastline she will know the very best places to rest with her calf as the little one will remember these special locations imprinted in their memory at only a couple of months of age.
