21st - 28th June Whale Watching Weekly Wrap
G’day everyone, well what a week it’s been here at Tangalooma with 40 whales spotted! We’ve had a few cool winter breezes but that hasn’t bothered us or these beautiful “Humpback whales” they get their name from the way they arch their back on the surface before making a dive, they do also have a small dorsal fin or “hump”. They are the 5th largest species of our great whales and the best species for whale watching as their annual migration takes them very close to the coastline whilst other whale species are found further out to sea.
The Humpback whale is well known for its acrobatic surface displays exhibiting a range of behaviours from pec-slapping, peduncle throws, tail slapping and also the incredible breaches!
We were lucky enough to see some charging males on Saturday, a pod of 6 whales were swimming at around 8 knots! The males were most likely following an ovulating female, the competition is fierce, ramming each other for prime position. The whales that are mating this year will return the following year to give birth as the gestation period for a whale is 12 months!
| Weekly Whale Count |
Adults |
Juveniles |
Calves |
Total |
| 21/06/18 - 28/06/18 |
21 |
17 |
2 |
40 |
The highlight of our week though would have to be the magical pair we found on Wednesday, with passing showers visibility was low and spotting the whales proved to be a challenge, our expert skipper Tracy had a hunch they may be resting in the leeward side of Flinders Reef and that’s where we saw a mature adult and juvenile rolling upside down on the surface almost as if to wave hello.
We were in absolute awe as the juvenile did a huge tail throw showing off its power but after almost 5 minutes of downtime and the whales last spotted about 100 meters away we thought they may have moved on… WE COULDN’T BELIEVE OUR EYES as the adult erupted at the front of the boat so close we all shouted in excitement! The two whales then breached another 20 times in a row giving everyone on board multiple photo opportunities.
With another 4 months left of whale watching we hope you’ll join us out on the Tangalooma whale watch to see some of our spectacular marine species.