Whales and August.....................

This week we saw the beginning of August and were still blessed with relatively good weather and good whales. The island is in need of some good rainfall as we are now reaching 7 weeks without  rain and our garden is dry and water tanks all over the island are echoing.

The week brought lots of surface activity with some brief swims and for now it seems the whales are still on the move, we are hoping to have some of the larger males singing as the waters have been eerily quiet so far. The couples that are here are sedate with little rowdy and competition action so far.

Female doing upside down tail slaps, on underwater viewing the female appeared to have lots of old skin

Calf decided to imitate the behaviour.

Two fluke id's were collected of which one the female seen in these pictures with her calf was identified in 2009. The other fluke id seen below was of an adult in a pair, however as if yet has not been matched in the catalog.

Fluke id of adult pair

Breaching was a major activity this week.

The surface activity was very good, and the in water encounters gave people a glimpse of a whales life underwater.

Its always hard for people to understand that we are trying to fit in with the whales behaviour and that the whales do not get excited about the fact that people have come here to swim with them. Sadly some operators do not help to create a realistic and natural encounter, forcing whales into swims and ignoring behavioural traits of the whales. 

Right now its Sunday and the island has a sleepy day, the whales have a rest and our staff get a family day.