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.

Summer Winds

Hard day today. Strong easterly winds, hugged the coast and got to Herald Point. Then over towards Michaelmas Island, had a good look out deep but nothing seen and conditions not very nice at all so didn't venture too far. Cruised to Mistaken Island with strengthening winds went over the passage and then home.
Dolphins swimming with us but no whales seen. But conditions very hard.

Funny how when you tell people that weather will restrict the area we will be able to operate in and they say its ok. Then you can see that they are very disappointed they have not seen a whale. Wonder if some times people think that I don't know what I'm talking about. Been doing this 16 years now learnt a thing or two, but still don't understand people.

Humpback Highway

Looks like Today will be the best day of the week. Things are not looking too good for the weekend. We have had a group of St Mary's students cancel a dive trip to Albany for the weekend and the forecast is not even so hot for whale watching. Hope the folks in the Urban Down Hill ride like it wet.

Friday though, we have blue skies and not too much wind yet. We have enjoyed morning tea and enjoyed the pleasure of some bottle nose dolphins as we pass Seal Rock but no whales have been sighted in King George Sound today.

We get out onto the line between Bald Head and Breaksea Island and I can see blows further south. Then a breach south east. Now blows south west of us. OK which pod do we go to first. The closest seams like a good idea. we find 2 humpbacks heading west they take several breathes then dive.

Ok they aren't too much fun so we turn and head east. Now we have what looks like 3-4 whales 1 km east of us. Blows south of those whales, blows south of us and blows east of those. It seems that the larger pod are staying on the surface for the longest time so we head in that direction.
They are also heading towards us so it is not long and we are travelling along side 4 humpbacks but there are 2 more whales heading in to join them. One of the whales has a lot of white on its side and we can see it easily even when it is under the surface of the water. We cruise along between the two pods.
At times we have whales throwing their tails from the water and I am hopeful that we ma have a breach close by. After all we are some way out and there is a bit of swell out here. But it seems not today.

We leave the whales drop in on some New Zealand Fur Seals and then head for home. As we enter King George Sound a small whale throw its tail from the water about 300 metres off to the east. I slow down still hoping for a breach but I don't see the whale again. Most folks have headed down stairs and are toasty warm in the cabin as we head towards home in time for lunch. 
Now we just have to work out how many whales we have spotted and fill in the CALM log book. 

10 whales close more in the distance:)

Here Come the Adults

Here come the adults.

Overcast conditions and no wind great us this morning although stronger winds are forecast.
We head out and Bernie tells us he has seen a quiet whale at the safe water marker. We cant find it so don't waste too much time in the area. We continue deep as he has also seen blows on the line. (The line between Breaksea Island and Bald Head)

We enjoy morning tea n the way and its not long after we see a blow further south. Its about 3654 km to Antarctica from Albany and I joke that its now only 3640 km now and hope people have packed an extra jacket. We find 2 adults that are cruising west and cruise along with them. We see a breach a good 1km south west of the pair we are tracking and 20 minutes latter we have a breach 2 km behind us.

We are now in the lea of the coast and this has given us calmer conditions and we cruise slowly with our whales. I am looking away scanning the area and there is a scream of WOW, I look back at where our whales should be to see a large area of white water. The obvious result of a 40 tonne humpback whale landing after launching its self from the water.

We follow for a little longer then head to the seals at Bald Head Cove. Then it back into King George Sound and we find 15- 20 Common Dolphins just to top off the cruise.

Humpback Cow, Calf & Midwife.

Strong winds were forecast but it looks like that will be latter today.

We head out and everyone has joined me on the fly-bridge, Bernie comes over the two-way to tell me that he has seen a very quiet whale half way between a ship at anchor and Seal Rock. We will keep a lookout as we go past but we know that we have several pods cruising on the "Humpback Highway"

We are off Limestone Head when we see our first blows. We have some heading towards Bald Head from out deep, and 2 pods further east. We pick one of the eastern pods and head that way. Then I see another blow off our starboard side. Ok we will go have a look.

We find 2 adult humpbacks, we have now stopped and are waiting for them to swim past us so we can follow. They are now off our port side and we are slowly travelling towards Bald Head. Now the whales stop and cut past our stern. I see that they have some dolphins with them. This can be good as at times they will chase the dolphins and dolphins will come to the boat.

Now they are heading into King George Sound, but that is not a dolphin, I see a very small Humpback calf. The first calf I have seen this year. When I first started whale -watching we did not see Humpbacks calves. Last year we saw about 15 for the season.

I have asked those that may know why this is. And the answer I get is that we have never had so many Humpback whales since we started keeping records and numbers are increasing by about 8% per year. With increasing populations we get a increase in chances of cows falling pregnant early in the season or the chance premature berths. What ever the reason its great to see.

We follow the cow, calf and midwife. (an adult female that will accompany an pregnant cow) until they get close to the headland where they stop for a rest it seems. They stay in the same place for about 10 minutes and then forge on again.  We follow until they pass the seal cove at Bald Head and we leave them on their migration north.

We go in and check on the New Zealand Fur Seals then head back into King George Sound, I did see several blows heading in to the sound when we were travelling with the cow and calf, so we will stay alert.

We have not travelled too far before I see a disturbance and as we approach we find a juvenile humpback surrounded by about 30 Common Dolphins. We knock the engines out of gear as the dolphins head over to us and the young whale follows. It gets to about 20 metres away and then turns and swims away.  Some of the dolphins stay with us and when the whale is far enough away we engage the engines and idle away. As we increase the revs dolphins come to the bow and start to ride the bow wave.

Now we head towards Whale-world and along Goode Beach and back into the marina in time for lunch. Staying on the fly-bridge I am constantly keeping a lookout and today I see several blows half way across the Sound. We don't go to investigate this time.

Surfing Humpback

We leave the jetty with clear skies and little wind.
As we leave Princes Royal Harbour Bernie calls on the radio to say there are whales out near the islands. So we head in that direction.

I am deep in-conversation with some of the passengers who have joined me on the fly-bridge, when Eve comes up to tell me she has seen a very soft blow off to our port side some 500 metres away. We go over to investigate. This young whale is pretty quiet, we stay with it for a little while until I see several blows further out to sea.

We find 2 whales cruising towards Bald Head but they surface take one breath and then dive again. Too had to get a good look at this pair. There are two more 800 metres to the east, these guys are a bit better they are cruising towards Bald Head then take a left turn and head south.

Ok, there are more whales over towards the south eastern end of Breaksea Island, the seas are calm so we head that way. As we get closer we count 6 blows as the whales surface. Getting closer now and the whales have split into two pods. One pod swimming close to Breaksea Island in a westerly direction the other 600m further south. We cruise with these whales either side of us until they enter King George Sound. Now the two pods come back together and at times we see whales launching them self half out of the water.

The weather is getting better, its a great day to be out on the water. We stick with these whales until they are well inside port limits, we are going to be late home but no one on-board has any problems with this.

Now we are heading home and spot a large pod of common dolphins heading towards us. I slow to half speed as the dolphins reach us and start surfing at the bow. Still cruising at this speed, dolphins are now in our wake. Looking back at the dolphins I spot a small whale heading into our wake and then turning and surfing in our wake just as the dolphins were. I reduce revs and spin the wheel around to go back and have a quick look at this small whale. I think it was the whale we found right at the start of our cruise. Now this whale is surrounded by the dolphins, I wonder if this small whale is seeking company and wonder if it will find the pod of 6 that are about 1km away.

Storm Forecast

Today the weather was not so good. The weather has changed and they  forecast strong winds for the afternoon. We head out but are a little limited to where we can go simply because we wish to keep things comfortable for our passengers. 3 girls who were going to travel yesterday, are with us today I so wish the had done our cruise yesterday and were today off doing the land based tour that they did yesterday. We head out to the Islands and the rain is limiting our viability. We round Michaelmas Island and head towards the seal colony @ Breaksea Island. From there we head towards Seal Rock now we have to contend with many white caps being whipped up by the strengthening winds. We round Mistaken Island and still, have had no success. The winds are getting stronger as we head back to the sheltered waters of princess Royal Harbour. We find some dolphins as we travel in through the channel other than the seals and a few sea birds it has been very quiet.  I feel sorry for today's passengers I wish they all had been able to be aboard yesterday. I know how good it can be and I wish all my passengers could experience  some of the sights I have seen. A storm is now raging out side I don't think we will be heading out on our Monday cruise.

Season Start

I wake to light N-NE winds and I head past Marine Drive on the way to the boat. Calm conditions for our first whale watching cruise. As I walk on board the boat to head out a call comes in from a local tug. Eric tells me that 2 Humpback whales are crossing the shipping channel not far from where he is waiting, for a wood chip ship, which will be brought into the port this morning. We find the whales very close to shore at Point King. They are very quiet maybe because the ship is now coming up the channel. We stick with these whales for some time, even enjoying morning tea. At times the whales do come close enough to get a good look but they are very quiet. We head off thinking me might find some dolphins for those children on board whom seem more interested in dolphins than whales. We cruise over towards Frenchman Bay going through the shallow channel at Mistaken Island. As we round the mussel lease I see a large splash out past Seal Rock.  We arrive to find 2 young humpbacks, if you were quick enough you may have been lucky enough to get some photos, of them breaching. May be they are starting to tire be cause they don't breach again while we are close. We follow them as the head towards Bald Head. We leave them as the water becomes confused and head towards home in time for lunch. I can relax now as I have all the children up on the fly-bridge, driving us home, as there parents capture the moments, the smiles tell the story.

Here They Come

Tuesday morning and we have 52 students from a Rockingham school join us on a morning cruise. We head out and cruise along Outer Brambles cruise over the passage between Mistaken Island and the northern end of Goode Beach. We enjoy some morning tea as we look for some dolphins. As we sit off Whale World talking about the days of whaling in Albany one of the local fishing boats calls to tell me that they spotted a couple of blows in a line between the the safe water marker and Michaelmas Island. We head out to see if we can find the whales. We do have some time constraints so cant spend too much time looking. But no luck today. We head towards Middleton Beach and back towards home and as we re-enter Princess Royal Harbour the deck from the fishing boat that had spotted the whale phones me to say he is sitting up on  Marine Drive and he can see the whales we were looking for, but they are now on the outer limits of King George Sound.

"Humpback Cow and Calf"

I get a text from Andrew Halsall who is doing the last section of a flight along the coast from Albany to Perth to count and photograph any Southern Right whales for John Banister and the Western Australian Museum. He tells us that we have 1 humpback whale south of the light on Breaksea Island at 0918 hours.

We head out towards Bald Head and as we get closer Bernie tells us he can see blows very close to the rocks. We then find the blows and a whale throwing it's self out of the water backwards so we head in that direction. As we get closer we see a calf traveling along side mum. We stick with these whales until they round Bald Head and then with a good swell still running we turn and head towards Breaksea Island to catch up with some new Zealand Fur Seals. Coming across a large pod of Common Dolphins who seam to have some place they want to be, can't see any schools of fish that they may be chasing so we leave them in their quest for what ever it is they are trying to catch. We catch up with the seals and then head back towards the marina via Cassey's beach and the coast of King George Sound.
"Master of the vessel Silver Star II"
Paul Guest

Whales chasing Dolphins

Bernie tells me that whales are breaching off Limestone Head, so that's the direction we head when we clear the channel entrance of princess Royal Harbour. It takes us about 15to 20 minutes to get to the area and we find the young whale heading towards Bald Head. We tag a long for about 20 minutes by which time we are heading west, south of Bald Head. This whale is not spending much time on the surface and knowing that blows had been seen east of our present location we turn and head in that direction. We see whales south as we are traveling east but I don't wish to start out travels to Antarctica just yet. Its not long before we see several blows so continue to investigate. As we get closer we notice some dolphins jumping full length from the water as the whales break the surface. Common Dolphins are a little smaller than Bottle-nose Dolphins and have a very distinctive stripe down their side where they change color, unlike Bottle-nose Dolphins that go from a dark gray on their backs to light gray on their belly with a gradual change of color. Well pod of dolphins seamed to number some where around 30 including very young ones staying close to their mothers.

 We start to travel with the whales trying hard to get a count. First thoughts were about 6 whales but after cruising with them for some time 8 whales seamed to be the count. We cruise with them for some time trying hard to get pics of them throwing their tails out of the water or pics that could convey the total number of whales in the pod. Thank goodness for digital cameras.

As we travel along side this pod we count several other pods off our port side. We also see another pod west of us about 1 km from Bald Head. We could have just sat their and waited for them. 
We are now running late for out "Estimated Time of Return" submitted to local sea rescue radio operators so we leave the large pod motor to the 3 whales so we can add them to our daily count and then head for home. As we do we drop into the New Zealand seal colony that frequent the cove just north of Bald Head. Once again the cameras start firing as the seal pups slide into the water from their sleeping positions on the rocks.

14 Humpback whales counted close to the boat and possibly the same number so far away that we could not add these numbers to our daily sightings page. We log only the whales that we have got with in 400 metres from and at times we just cant get that close to all the blows that we see, as we would just never get home at night.

"Think Whales Think Albany"
Master of the vessel Paul Guest

Whale Watching In Albany Western Australia

Breaching Humpback.

www.whales.com.au

No Cruises this weekend because of strong winds. With strong north westerly winds conditions in the western end of King George Sound are fine for whale watching, but the whales have been on the outer reaches of King George Sound, out around Breaksea and Michaelmas Islands and on a line between Breaksea Island and Bald Head. The humpback whales (Megaptera Novaeangliae) are on their annual migration north for mating and calving.
 
Master of the vessel Paul Guest