Every austral winter, Southern Humpback Whales (???????????????????????????????????? ???????????????????????????????????????????????? ????????????????????????????????????) embark on one of the longest migrations of any animal. From the cold, food-rich waters of Antarctica, the whales swim about a staggering 7000 kilometres to the warmer waters of Queensland to mate and raise their young, passing the other states of Australia’s east coast along the way, including Victoria. To observe these magnificent giants on their journey, I decided to go whale-watching. With everything planned, booked and packed over a few days, I then spent almost five hours travelling from Geelong to Phillip Island and stayed there for two days. All that was absolutely worth it. The conditions that day were amazing – the sky was clear, and the sea was calm. After thirty minutes of waiting and searching, the first whale of our trip appeared. Unfortunately, it only surfaced twice and dived down after ten minutes, never to be seen again for the rest of the cruise.
Things then took a huge turn as we were suddenly alerted to some large splashes in the distance just moments later, which led us to a competition pod of four whales! Once our captain stopped the engines, a spectacular show ensued. The sea’s surface erupted with activity, with the four whales continuously surfacing and doing tail-up dives, and as if that wasn’t enough, one member of the pod was much more energetic than the other three, repeatedly breaching, lobtailing and slapping its pectoral fins around our vessel as everyone, myself included, watched in awe.
This went on for over an hour, before we finally had to head back to San Remo Jetty, marking an amazing finish to our exhilarating day on the water.
The first time I saw a humpback whale was when I was only eight. Photography wasn’t even my hobby at that age, but ever since I learnt more and more about cetaceans, watching and photographing the surface behaviours of these incredible animals had been a bucket list item for me until this trip. And now, here they are — two of my best shots, of that energetic whale, from the day that I’d dreamt of for almost a decade. It finally came true, and it couldn’t be more perfect!
-Caius
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