{"id":767229,"date":"2026-06-29T06:31:11","date_gmt":"2026-06-29T06:31:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/767229\/"},"modified":"2026-06-29T06:31:11","modified_gmt":"2026-06-29T06:31:11","slug":"incredible-scene-as-mammoth-whale-seen-swimming-through-mandurah-estuary-guided-by-dolphins","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/767229\/","title":{"rendered":"Incredible scene as mammoth whale seen swimming through Mandurah estuary, guided by dolphins"},"content":{"rendered":"

A large whale has been spotted swimming through a Perth estuary in incredible scenes captured on video by locals.<\/p>\n

The southern right whale was seen making its way through the estuary cut in Dawesville in WA\u2019s Peel region on Saturday morning.<\/p>\n

Drone footage captured the animal \u2014 which could be up 18 meters in length and weigh 80-90 tons \u2014 surrounded by dolphins.<\/p>\n

Drone operator Callum Craig suspected they may have been trying to navigate the whale back out to the open ocean.<\/p>\n

\u201dQuick little video of the Southern Right Whale in the cut estuary today (Saturday), seemed to be confused and doing multiple changes in direction,\u201d he wrote in a post to social media.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think the dolphins were trying to help but maybe this whale was a little confused as which way to go.\u201d<\/p>\n

Another witness posted photos after spotting the whale in the estuary between 10.15am and 10.30am.<\/p>\n

Others agreed it seemed as though dolphins were leading it towards the deeper water of the Indian Ocean.<\/p>\n

It is peak migrating and calving season along the WA coastline for southern right whales.<\/p>\n

The season officially runs from May to November as they travel north during winter and return south in the late spring.<\/p>\n

\"SouthernCamera IconSouthern right whale pictured in the Dawesville cut. Credit: Kirr Bys\/Facebook\"ACamera IconA local photographed the incredible scene. Credit: Kirr Bys\/Facebook<\/p>\n

They will typically move closer to the coast to mate, calve and nurse in protected bays.<\/p>\n

A whale carcass shut down Grant Street Beach in Cottesloe on the weekend.<\/p>\n

However, it has since been removed by Town of Cottesloe officers and the beach has been reopened.<\/p>\n

Swimmers are advised to continue being cautious in the water.<\/p>\n

\u201cAdditional caution is recommended by the Department of Primary Industries and Regional Development, as any residue from where the whale carcass was beached may attract sharks to the area,\u201d DPIRD said on the SharkSmart website.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A large whale has been spotted swimming through a Perth estuary in incredible scenes captured on video by…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":767230,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[1313,64,63,76394,44,128,45,338],"class_list":["post-767229","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wildlife","tag-animals","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-mandurah","tag-news","tag-science","tag-wa-news","tag-wildlife"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/767229","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=767229"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/767229\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/767230"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=767229"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=767229"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=767229"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}