9 November 2016 – 194 926
Whale Watching and AQWA
This morning we once again said farewell to the Turnbulls. We then headed to Hilarys Boat Harbour for a
8:30am whale watching cruise.
It took
about 45 minutes to get to the area where the whales are usually seen on their
southern migration (in a triangular area between Hilarys, Fremantle and
Rottnest Island); on their northern migrations, when they don’t have young
calves travelling with them, they travel on the westerly side of Rottnest
Island where the water is deeper. We saw
a large group of dolphins, twenty or so, which hung around the boat for a few
minutes. We also saw Little Island,
where seals are known to hang out on the sand.
After a while we were fortunate enough to see and mother and calf
humpback whales which allowed us to approach and then chose to come and
investigate us, allowing us several views of them. A little further along we saw a Blue Whale do
a deep dive with its tail extending well out the water – quite amazing. After another short period of time we again
spotted mother and calf humpback whales that allowed us to approach. They came in close and investigated us, after
a while they were joined by a second mother and calf pair with an escort
male. We had these five humpback whales
move toward and away from the boat repeatedly over a one hour period
investigating us – it was amazing. The
whales clearly realize they no longer have anything to fear from the boats as
they spent a large amount of time within five to eight metres of the boat. At one stage I was looking out the other side
of the boat watching one of the mother and calf pairs when a whale came up to
“blow” about a metre behind me – it certainly made me jump, but gave me a close
up look at it! When this large group
finally decided they had finished investigating the humans, we headed back to
dry land.
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