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Escort with calf rolling and mother rolling in the foreground.(Darren Craig) |
There was a bit of a stormy patch on Monday so it was
relaxing day off. Even though the forecast didn’t look great for Tuesday, we
took a chance and it paid off. In the morning we set out to get some film
footage for Ken O’Sullivans Sea Fever Productions. We stumbled onto a single
animal who breached about 10 metres away from our boat. It was a bit of a
surprise considering we were only speculating a faint blow in the area. Another
two breaches and the animal was gone, very crafty.
After getting a
little tip from the whale watching boat, we got onto a mother and calf just
west of the harbour entrance. We tried to get close to them but, alas, they
were being evasive and soon darted off west (at least that where we think they
went).
Following a spot of lunch, we set out from the harbour.
Within about one and a half minutes we spotted a blow. This is great; the
whales are starting to come to us now. We followed this mother, calf and escort
south into Sal Rei Bay. The whales didn’t seem to bothered by our boat so we
sneaked up on them and Ken slipped into the water to attempt some underwater
footage. The pod stuck around the same area sub-surface for quite a while so
there may have been a possibility of mating occurring. Or maybe they were just
hugging, who knows?
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Calf fluke. (Darren Craig |
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Lobtailing male. (Darren Craig) |
This morning was another rough day on the water. We were
lucky enough to see a couple of adults lob-tailing a number of times over
approx. 30 minutes. It was difficult trying to get pictures and video footage
as the weather was worsening and there was water splashing everywhere. We
called it a day at lunch-time as the swell had picked up to 3 metres and the
sea state was hitting a 5.
Upon our return to natura today, we were greeted by an adult
red-billed tropic bird, in a cardboard box! Someone had saved the bird from
being eaten and had dropped it into the office. We are off to the beach now to
release it.