Southern Right Whale with GoPro

Seeing whales every day. A great season this year.

Great White Shark with Albany Ocean Adventures

A few good pictures from the other day. We are seeing whales every cruise and the Southern Right Whales arrived Saturday in numbers. The days count was 11 Southern Rights and 6 Humpbacks.

Some Days are Diamonds

Well at last, after some computer problems, now after recovery. I have been able to go through over 400 pictures taken of this young Humpback whale. We spent over an hour being entertained by this young whale. Two adult Humpbacks at one point swam past taking no notice of what was going on some several hundred metres from them as they passed by.

The season started off a little slow, but over the past 10 days we have enjoyed whales every day we have cruised. Last Saturday with stunning weather conditions we had 3 adult humpbacks swimming around us for about 30 minutes.

But not all days are diamonds.
We have had a couple of days when although we find several pods of young whales they just didn't want to interact or to be watched at all. Sunday 28th we find 5 Southern Right Whales at Breaksea Cove. This is the earliest in 18 years I have seen Southern Rights in King George Sound. May be this will be a big season for these whales.

Whales and Dolphins

After a stormy day yesterday and not being able to find any whales to watch, although several had been seen from the shore out on the line between Breaksea Island and Bald Head. We were not expecting too much with strong winds forecast for the next few days. How ever I woke to calm conditions, with several groups contacting us to confirm we will be cruising I park up on Marine Drive, to scan King George Sound. At about 0820 I see 2 humpback whales just north of the Mistaken Island mussel lease. I think that the whales will have left the sound by the time we are leaving the marina, but conditions are good so I am pretty confident we will find whales today. As we leave Princess Royal Harbour I chat to Bernie who is now sitting up on Marine Drive and he tells me whales are close to the ship that is at anchor in the Sound. We get there in 10 minutes and find 2 humpbacks. They are pretty quiet so we get Andrew the deckie to crank up the earn and serve morning tea. I am sure the whales know we are in the area but they are in love so don't care about us as long as we do not harass them. After about 45 minutes watching the whales we spot a pod of Bottlenose Dolphins several hundred metres away. I know if they find the whales we could be in for some good photos. We spend about 2 hours with the whales in total, as the dolphins join the whales the whales become more active and at times as they chase the dolphins we are unsure where the whales will surface next. At times swimming very close past the stern of the boat. When its time to leave we have not travelled more than 2 km from where we first caught up with these whales.

Pygmy Blue Cow & Calf

We do not get to see many Pygmy Blue whales (Balaenoptera musculus brevicauda) never mind a cow & calf. I do love my job. Having been involved in whale watching for over 18 years now and I never quite know what I will see when I go to work in the morning. Every day is different and I love to show nature at its best off the south coast of Western Australia.

Whales Chasing Common Dolphins

Leaving Princess Royal Harbour we are told that whales have been seen over towards Limestone Head. We head in that direction and find them NE of Seal Rock. Two very quiet young humpbacks.

We stick with them for some time then see dolphins 500 metres away, we go over to them and when they are in our wake we head back to the whales. We watch them play for some time. Spy hopping and fluke slaps as they play / chase the dolphins

We head off to see what else we may find out towards Breaksea Island, after finding the seals on the northern shores, we head to the eastern end and head south. We cruise west along the southern side of  Breaksea Island with great visibility off to the south but to no avail. We cruise past a local small boat at the south western end of the island to see if they are having any luck.

Now head towards Bald Head cruising past the dredge as it empties and then continue to Limestone Head along the coast past Discovery Bay, Frenchman Bay, Goode Beach and over the passage at Mistaken Island and back to the marina.