Magnificent vessels of the sea and some relaxed mothers and calves were sighted today. A young female Humpback was catching up on some rest with possibly her very first calf and although she was only a small female both herself and her calf looked healthy. The more mature female we also sighted today seemed a bit more casual, allowing her calf to surface on his own (and have a few cheeky looks at us!) as she logged 15 meters below. The beautiful Duyfken replica greeted us on our departure today and what a wonderful sight she is! She was the first European sailing ship to arrive on Australian shores all the way from the Netherlands and today she arrived back home in the Fremantle Harbour after a 10 week voyage celebrating and commemorating Dirk Hartog’s arrival 400 years ago?

A beautifully named tanker and a very impressive Australian Navy submarine were a couple of the other magnificent vessels sighted today while enjoying the company of our Humpbacks. We were fortunate to be so close to a very much moving and alive submarine which was an experience not often encountered! All of this noise from surrounding vessels allows our females to camouflage into their resting grounds and any communication between them and their calves cannot be easily heard from close by predators resulting in a much safer environment for these very wise mums.

 

-Whale Watch Western Australia

This story was adapted from a blog post, read the original here