Mollymook Beach – Southern Right Whale and calf

Southern Right Whale with its calf and the Mollymook Ocean swimmers.

It was a glorious morning at Mollymook. As the sun was rising so to was a black figure appearing up towards north Mollymook. Bit by bit it slowly began moving south only some 200 or so metres off shore. In a matter of time it became obvious this massive whale had its calf in tow. With its distinctive markings and squirting water in a V, we were able to make out that it was a southern right whale. It just so happened that it coincided with the early morning ocean swimmers time to enter the water.

The ocean fraternity are a sharing community.

According to ‘Wild about whales’ fact sheet; they say that the southern right whale is a baleen whale and one of three species classified as right whales. This species is easily distinguished from others because of their broad back without a dorsal fin, wide pectoral fins, a long arching mouth that begins above the eye and small rough patches of skin (or callosities) on its large head.

It has very dark grey or black skin, with occasional white patches on the belly. Its two separate blow holes produce a distinguishing V-shaped blow. Southern rights have an enormous head which is up to one quarter of total body length. The callosities on the head are made of hard material, similar to human finger-nails, which appear white due to large colonies of whale lice called cyamids. The number, shape and position of the callosities are unique to each individual whale, and allow us to tell them apart. Southern right whales tend to have a large callosity at the front of the head, called a ‘bonnet’.

This Southern Right Whale was huge.

Sue and Chris meet up with Peter

Peter the Priest welcomes Chris and Sue to his new posting in Darwin. They wrote “guess who we found”. They passed on regards from all the Mollymook ocean swimmers.

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More whale pics below: Click on images to enlarge