How to identify Queensland Humpback Whales is all in the fluke and part of each journey with Whale Watch Queensland it to continue building our ever growing Australian Humpback catalogue. It was a beautiful day on the Gold Coast with a big blue sky and gentle breeze as we made our way out into the sighting grounds. Two mother and calf pods were travelling south and maintaining a quiet profile as they were wary of other pods in their vicinity. Wishing them well we joined with the pods a few hundred meters away as they were also southbound but curious to what was happening in the area around them. One pod in particular were two enormous adults cruising together and showing interest towards the Whale Watch 1.
A powerful exhalation right on our stern erupted as they approached and came over to check us out. It was lovely to be in the company of these mature adults with their size and presence clear to see. Lifting their flukes in a graceful round out dive provided us the perfect opportunity to collect the identification images required of each individual. The underside of each fluke is just like a fingerprint and unique to that particular whale allowing us to track future sightings of them into the future. The flukes of both whales today were very beautiful and as we continue to grow our east coast catalogue our West Australian catalogue is also growing during each tour. Our national Australian Humpback Whale catalogue will enable us to study, research and document both populations of Humpbacks that call Australia home.
