Gary Dunnett, CEO NPA NSW
I started working at Kamay Botany Bay National Park in the late 1990’s, just as the annual migration of Humpback Whales was becoming one of the highlights of the Sydney calendar. My kids grew up enduring winter mornings spotting whales and each year I’d head out to get a bit of salt crust on the telephoto lens. A quarter century later, the Humpback migration is very much entrenched as part of my year.
This June, on the tail end of a miserable cold, I headed to Wattamolla to find a nook where I could shelter while looking out to sea. I was delighted to look south and see at least five groups of Humpbacks close into the coast and working their way north towards my vantage point.
The first two Humpbacks arrived. To my delight they were accompanied by a pod of Bottlenose Dolphins. As each Humpy came up to breath a dolphin would dart forward to ‘bow ride’ at its’ snout. This wasn’t the first time I’d seen this behaviour, but it was a thrill to capture it on the camera. They continued north and soon disappeared from sight.
The next group arrived a few moments later. Once again, the whales were accompanied by bow-riding Bottlenose Dolphins. This time the Humpies did a big clockwise loop on the surface, seemingly to prolong the interaction with the dolphins. Eventually they turned back north, after which the next group arrived. And again the dolphins. The same thing happened another three times.
At some point my fluey brain realised that, rather than every whale having an escort, I’d stumbled upon a spot where the dolphins were intercepting the passing whales.
I’m sure that there is some complex ecological explanation for these interactions. What it very much looked like, however, was socialising and playing. Whatever the reality, it was a wildlife encounter that removed any sense that the Humpback migration had become mundane. We are so lucky in NSW, it takes nothing more than a trip to a coastal headland to witness one of the most remarkable wildlife events on our planet.