First Calf For Season

Heading out today the rain cleared and the sun shone through the clouds.
We find 2 whales and follow for a while until they go quiet.
We head east and see blows quickly but it is not regular and although we are travelling slow we don't see again.
We do see a huge splash which can only be one thing a whale breaching some km away from us. I am tempted to travel out to it, but I know that it may be the only breach that the whale does.
As I scan around the vessel I see a blow back towards town.
We head in that direction to find the first Humpback cow and calf for this season.
We stick with these whales as they slowly cruise towards Limestone Head and then cruise along the coast. We leave them and check out 3 humpbacks in the seal cove at Bald Head. We check out the seals and head home, getting back to the marina at about 1245.
A good days whale watching.

The Memory Bank.

After having a couple of days when we only had a couple of people who wished to cruise, not enough passengers to leave the jetty.  Heading out with clear skies but knowing that the winds would soon strengthen and hoping we could find some whales before the weather arrives. We head towards Bald Head and then over towards Breaksea Island. The wind is starting to get stronger and I don't wish to head too far out unless I am sure of finding some whales. We enjoy some morning tea as we cruise on the northern side of the island. Then after spending some time watching New Zealand Fur Seals at the eastern end of Breaksea Island. We spot a couple of blows. Making our way towards the blows we thing we have 3 humpbacks. Now we can just find 1 young whale cruising al alone. As we travel with it then we spot the other whales. Their are 3 more whales ( 2 adults and 1 juvenile)  about 400 metres away from the lone juvenile. We are now between the 2 pods and as we travel along I think that we have a new born calf with the adults.  As we follow for some time the young whale off to our left suddenly breaches about 50 metres away from us. Too quickly for any one to catch on film but those on the fly-bridge with me are all very pleased that we had seen it. The talk was then about some times just filing these things in the memory bank and not being to worried that we did not capture on film. We stick with the whales for some time and then head back towards town in time for lunch.

Humpback Cow & Calf

For the past 4 days we have found this Humpback Calf with his mother in King George Sound.
Friday we also found 4 Southern Right Whales half way between Limestone Head and Bald Head. We had heard there were 4 Southern Rights at Two Peoples Bay the previous Monday. Saturday after watching the cow and calf, we found 5 humpbacks in 2 pods. Sunday we watched mother and calf and then found 3 humpbacks just a little further east. Sunday afternoon we found them again. With 3 more humpbacks out a little once again. In the time we have watched the mother and calf we have seen the cow breach several times. I have never seen a cow with such a young calf breach ever before. We are told that until a humpback calf is about 14 days old their dorsal fin will be bent over.  As you can see from the picture this calf fits that description.

4 Humpbacks & Beautifull Conditions.

What a beautiful day. Very little wind flat calm sea conditions and blue skies. We head out and to day is a day you just love to be on the water even if you don't see a whale. We get to Limestone Head and i have not spotted any blows yet so we turn and head towards Breaksea Island. It is not long before I spot several blows and when I am happy that what I am seeing is not caused by waves breaking on the shore of Michaelmas Island I tell those who are sitting with me on the fly bridge that we have some whales ahead. I point out what I have spotted and with in a short time every body has picked up the whales as they head in to King George Sound. I increase the revs and it is not long before we with in 500 metres of the whales and we have once again reduced revs to just above idle. How many whales have we found? It can be hard some times as they don't all take a breath at the same time. We follow these whales for longer than 1 hour, at times one of the whales lurches from the water and I think we are about to see some breaching but that dose not eventuate. The larger of the whales is making loud snorting sounds at times, is this aggressive or is it just clearing hits throat. We leave these whales as they get close to Bald Head. We head towards Frenchman Bay where we find some dolphins just to top of the day. We had some guests booked on the tour today and they did not turn up. I know that tomorrow the weather will not be so good I will be disappointed if they didn't make it because they slept in.

"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

"Two calves in three days"

We wake to a beautiful winters day. Not what I expected with the forecast for the day and not what we are told we will wake up with tomorrow. Bernie arrives to tell me that he cant be at the lookout this morning as he will be attending a funeral for an old local well known fisherman. But he tells me that he has been watching two humpbacks that took 30 minutes to travel from just off Marine Drive to over past the Quarantine buoy. We find these whales east of the mussel lease north of Mistaken Island, traveling towards Seal Rock. We follow for a while but they are very quiet so when we get close to Seal Rock we decide to head out towards Limestone Head. On board we have a passenger whose father runs a whale watching vessel out of Hervey Bay, so when she tells me that we have more whales at 10 o'clock I head that way. As we get closer I wonder what we are seeing as things don't seam "normal". I ask Eve my deckie to bring my camera up to me at the fly bridge helm. We find a humpback laying on the surface and not moving. Then it all makes sense we see a baby take several breaths, laying close to mum. We stay for a while getting pictures of this tiny baby. Has it just been born, how old is it? I did notice that the babies dorsal fin was standing straight although very very small, this usually tells us that the calf is at least 10 days old. We leave so mum will not get stressed. seeing more whales south we head out. We find a young lone whale heading west and tag along for a little while. Then breaches about 800 metres further south. 3 more blows 600 metres south east, 2 blows east, blows several km east and breaching to the south west.
Of course humpbacks will breach once or 30 times so its a little hard to make an educated choice which pod to follow. Folks it's just pot luck some times.

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