On October 26 2009 Pam photographed this humpback north of Rottnest Island, Western Australia during a routine shoot for the Centre for Whale Research's (CWR) humpback catalogue. A large section of the flukes have been excised possibly from a predator attack.We were delighted to hear from CWR's Micheline Jenner this week that they first photographed this whale in June 1992 near the Monte Bello islands. At this time, the whale was heading north on the annual migration to the Kimberley waters and was travelling with one other adult whale. The section of fluke was missing then.
When we photographed the animal last October it was in a rather boisterous pod of 13 adults on their return to Antarctic seas to feed.
Micheline has advised that at 17 years, it is now the longest re-sight of any whale in their catalogue. May it plough the seas for many more years and hopefully whale meet again.
