Blue Whales At Home Day 11 (Feb 10, 2016)
There was a hive of activity of shipping in the wee hour of the morning, as we positioned ourselves to retrieve another of Rob’s long-term loggers at sunrise in the Perth Canyon. Despite a few blue whale calls, animals in the flesh had remained elusive throughout the journey from Port Lincoln to Fremantle.
From 0700, the team began the retrieval from 400m with all going very smoothly and at 0825 all the gear was safely and neatly piled on deck. Yes – now we had the day to look for blue whales! With a high pressure system in the Bight, Western Australia has had at least 4 days over 40 degrees C, so having enjoyed a cooler maritime climate for the last week or so, we were not keen to sit alongside in the heat when we could spend time with whales…
Familiar Footprints. Following a feeding pygmy blue whale.
Curt and Rob began taking cross-bearings from pygmy whale calls in the area and we drove 7 nm to the south, in search of blows. In perfect sea conditions we scanned and scanned. Finishing my last mouthful of a lunch sandwich, I nearly choked when a tall, blue whale blow billowed half a mile away on our port side. I stomped excitedly on the deck of the fly-bridge (code for ‘I have a whale!’) and called out, you see in these situations I have no need for a radio! ‘Yahooooo!’ I bellowed ‘WE HAVE A BLUE WHALE!’ I am pretty certain you probably heard from wherever you are! When one looks and looks for days on end and then finally succeed with a sighting-the relief and happiness is intense! This is my excuse and I am sticking to it!
A Pygmy Blue Whale.
Pod 1, an animal approximately 22 m long, came over to check out Whale Song!
Two thousand photos later, we decided we had some suitable photo-id shots of the two pygmy blue whales that we had encountered and we thoroughly determined that they were pygmy blue whales from the rounded head shape. As well, we had collected notes on a third pod seen 1.5 nm away. We just had to come home to find blue whales! Having let the city cool down, we made for Fremantle and at 1851 we made the last line secure at the service wharf. Safe and sound again, after another several thousand miles at sea.
Pizza with Micah, our daughter and the crew alongside was a lovely end to another fantastic trip with a cocktail of whales visually encountered and acoustically recorded.
Stay cool,
Mich
No comments yet.