The Humpback Whales at Cottesloe Beach were communication The Language of the Whales™ today with breaching, tail lobs and high energy all around. A mother, calf and her male escort had caught the attention of two nearby males and the chase had begun. The mother and her calf raced towards us and dived below our bow to try and deter the following males who still keenly followed. The two bachelor males sent their energy right through the surrounding coastline and nearby mother and calf pods responded with breaching and head lunging, do not come over this way they were saying! Noticing a couple of the local Bottlenose Dolphins cruise past our bow and approach further Humpback Whales at Cottesloe Beach we decided to follow and it wasn’t long before the friendly Bottlenose Dolphins had met a young juvenile Humpback and they began to socialise together.
The juvenile Humpback seemed oblivious to the fact that the Dolphins were leading him straight towards us where he finally noticed us only a few meters in front of the bow as he slowed to check hinge out. Circling towards our stern he lifted his flukes high above the surface and slapped them back down a couple of times, two more adults were approaching! These two large adults took over the situation and the area which they now regarded as their own, poor Mr. Juvenile now had to watch us from afar as these two larger whales had a good look at us. Suddenly on their next resurfacing the large male launched himself into an incredible tail lob right alongside our vessel, he was letting everyone know including us that this was his female. The mother,calf and male escort had by this time moved further back towards us and now that the two following males had changed their focus the calf gained some confidence from the male escort who had also tail lobbed a little earlier and tried his very own tail lob and tail slapping…how quickly they Learn the Language of the Whales™!
