Don't Shoot Me - Humpback Songs of Exmouth Gulf

Don't Shoot Me - Humpback Songs of Exmouth Gulf is 2 hours of humpback whale song recorded in Exmouth Gulf, Western Australia by Wayne Osborn. The album is available on iTunes and Spotify. The iTunes links is https://itun.es/au/Tozleb

The Orca Survivor

Life can be very brutal especially if you are a new born humpback whale calf.  This little guy was photographed with his/her mum in Exmouth Gulf, Western Australia a few days ago.  Within her first few weeks of life (we will assume its a girl as she is a tough survivor) she has been severely mauled by killer whales (orcas).

The extensive scars and missing blubber bear testament to a near fatal battle for this little one.  Miraculously she has survived and is beginning to heal.  The water would have been filled with blood as the pack of orcas fought to tire and drown here.  The scarring and missing flesh on her fluke show where one orca has held her whilst the others attacked.  Her mum would have been desperately engaged in the battle to save her calf.  

The top two images show the calf's right and left flanks.  The third image show her damaged fluke.  The bottom image show's mum's right flank.  She appears unscathed however there is an abrasion just below her dorsal fin.

Both cow and calf were resting when photographed by Pam Osborn.  Exmouth Gulf is a shallow water resting ground for humpbacks and new season calves.  Whilst Orcas work the outside waters of Ningaloo Reef (a number of calf fatalities have been recorded there in recent years), they don't often enter the waters of the Gulf.

Life & Death in Perth Waters

 As the remarkable recovery of humpback whales from, a few hundred on the Western Australian coast in the 1960's to over 30,000 today, continues new problems emerge.  On 10/11/2011 a humpback calf was hit by a pleasure boat transiting between Fremantle and Rottnest Island.  The calf sustained deep cuts to its back and was not expected to survive.  The stress to the mother - a highly intelligent and sentient mammal does not bear thinking about.  For the people on the boat, the experience would also be traumatic.

The above image is of a mother relaxing with her calf near the windmills (on the track from Fremantle to Rottnest) 8 days before the collision.  We really haven't come to grips with the explosion of whale numbers in our waters.  Pam and I have photographed over 1600 humpback whales in Western Australian waters and we see growing evidence of more frequent ship strikes.

It's time that we seriously rethink how we manage our marine activities and make our waters safer for these precious survivors from the days of commercial whaling.  Unfortunately as on the roads, speed kills.