19/07/2022 it was a cold start to the day with a brisk cold gentle Northerly breeze blowing , the ocean was flat calm with no swell, and we headed out of Augusta Boat Harbour – straight away there was small splashing in close to shore by the old river mouth at flinders bay , so we headed that way and discovered a Mother with her new Humpack calf which was mainly grey in colour. The little one was practicing tail slapping and Breaching while mum a fully grown 15 metre Humpback lay resting …. a awesome sight to see such a young whale playing safely in the bay for all onboard.
We then decided to let the youngester enjoy playing and Mum resting so quickly moved away , our next target was a pod of 2 Humpbacks which were also resting and moving slowly at about 2 knots through the bay they were doing 6 minute breath holds and would surface close to the boat do the odd pec slap and tail slap, we sat with these 2 for most of the tour as there were plenty of whales in the area doing much the same thing with these 2 being the most interactive.
The afternoon tour started much the same way , this time with another Humpback calf which was alot more darker than the previous one , we watched this mother and calf as the calf did some close passes by the boat, we left these guys and headed seaward coming across one of the stangest pigmentations I have seen in a Humpback whale in the 12 years we have been Whale Wachting, the crew and passengers called her “Zebra” ( see pics below )
We then moved around the Abalone farm and towards Saint Alouran Island discovered in 1772 by louis de St Alouran and here we found a competion pod that were moving at 8 knots at times the 3 super sized Humpback males swam so close they almost went underneath us – all onboard got to witness – Head lunging and lots of pushing and shoving from the big males , we followed them to south east rocks before Heading back to Augusta Boat Harbour.
