We sighted the largest female for the southern migration so far today and her enormous calf! He was so big and seemed to be enjoying the company of two other males that had just recently joined up with mum and were very gently trying to impress her while at the same time trying to push each other away. We could tell the young calf was a male thanks to his exuberant full body rolls and pec slaps at the surface which gave us a quick glimpse of his belly and this is really the only way to 100% confirm that a Humpback whale is male or female from just visual identification.
As the males chased after mum she decided to head straight towards our vessel and to the joy of everyone onboard she drifted underneath our bow as her calf cuddled up to his safe place, just on top of mums back. This slowed the approaching male down a bit which allowed the calf to retain his spot right next to mum as she continued to block the approach of both males. After a little while they all relaxed and came over to spend a few moments curiously checking us out before a lone Bottlenose Dolphin male came in to investigate on this wonderful Sunday in Perth.
