2016 whale watching
The whales were late to arrive this year. Although a few trickled through the humpbacks didn’t really arrive in numbers until the end of September. (Compared to late August – early September last year). The Southern Right Whales have keep us entertained while we waited for the humpbacks. There has also been some blue whales going past and although we do see them at this time the numbers have been higher this year.
Last Thursday the humpbacks turned on a show that made the wait worthwhile. In freezing weather (for this part of the world) they performed every trick they knew. Breaching (in two hours we saw around 40 breaches), tail slapping, fin slapping and so on. I saw one humpback spinning and flapping his pectoral fins as he went. I could see a black fin, then a white one, then black and so on (the underside is white). Most of the time we could see 3-5 pods at once.

One humpback breaching while another lies on its back applauding!

Tail slapping
These whales were about 2.5km off shore and I was watching from the rocks at Pt Picquet.