Do humpbacks know where we are?

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And how do we make sure they know?

Today we saw a small pod dolphins, and a couple of “mums and calves” on our way north from Mackay to Lindeman Island. Dorothy spotted the first pair of whales roughly 300 hundred meters to starboard. Steve spotted the second pair about the same distance dead ahead.

Both mums seemed to be asleep or resting. It was nearly flat calm so with a sharp lookout we could spot them. In some chop you wouldn’t see them until maybe 50-100m if you were looking just the right direction.

Here’s a recent July, 2010 case from South Africa that we definitely want to avoid.

Obviously this southern right whale did not know the yacht was there!

Paloma Werner said the southern right whale breached just metres from their boat off the coast of the seaside town of Hermanus on Sunday.

(…) “We’d spotted it about 100 metres away and thought that was the end of it. Then suddenly it was right up beside us.”

The seas around Cape Town are teeming with whales and great white sharks during the winter months, which fall in the middle of the year.