Whale Watching

In recent years, whale watching along Western Australia's coastline has become an increasingly popular pastime with tourists and locals alike.

Steeped in myth and mystery, whales have fascinated people for thousands of years; Jonah survived, according to the Bible, in the belly of a whale, and the tale of Moby Dick continues to enthral.

Whales range in size and weight from the 31-metre blue whale, the world’s largest, weighing between 80 and 130 tonnes, to the 2.4-metre dwarf sperm whale, weighing about 150 kilograms.

They are divided into the toothed whales (eg., sperm and killer whales) and the baleen whales (like humpbacks). Toothed whales feed on squid, fish, and sometimes marine mammals. Mostly, baleen whales sieve planktonic organisms from the water. All are air-breathing, warm-blooded mammals that give live birth and nurse their young.

They have streamlined, smooth-surfaced bodies, no external ears, flippers like forelimbs for steering and manoeuvring, very few hairs, and a layer of insulating blubber. These characteristics make them ideally suited to their marine environment.