The first thing a customer asked yesterday was “how often do you see blue whales?”, it was something on his bucket list! We stated that we have been seeing them earlier this year than any other and that we get the majority around November. However, we have now had seven sightings from the vessel this season! The prodominant species of blue that pass through during our whale watching in Dunsborough in Geographe Bay are the “pygmy blues”. Their name is quite deceiving as they’re only 20% smaller than the True Blues, coming in at ~24m and 140 tonnes…so very small!
It was early off the bat, we were cruising just off the coast near Castle Rock with some humpbacks when we saw a large blow! The crew looked at each other in excitement. We waited patiently as humpbacks were breaching in every direction! By now we were off Eagle Bay, another blow! IT WAS A BLUE! The mottled colouration and lack of fluke at the surface confirmed the sighting. We were also nearly another vessel, the Talasea, which is a research boat conducting filming of blue whales with an imax camera! We assisted their team who were in the tender as they lined up the crew to dive along side these magnificent giants! The blue was heading straight toward them! It wasn’t long until they surfaced screaming with excitement, they’d got the shot!!! Check out the work the team are doing at @ginclearfilm on instagram or http://ginclearfilm.com/about-ginclearfilm/.
The customers had grins from ear to ear, it was amazing to witness the worlds largest living animal whilst also experiencing the development of research at the same time! We also had a fabulous afternoon tour with an INCREDIBLY close encounter from a mother and calf!
Check the footage out on our instagram page @naturalistecharters!
