Whale of a time spreads joy

江西 江海連

It is a sight guaranteed to lift everyone's spirits—the impressive migration of southern right whale（南露脊鯨）calves and their“very protective”mothers.

People living on the eastern coast of Australia are used to seeing the annual migration of humpback whales（座頭鯨）,but these southern right whales have also been spotted over the past two months.Some have even swum into beaches and inlets（小灣）,to the delight of lucky locals.

While Australia's southern right whale population is usually concentrated on the southern coastline of the Great Australian Bight,Western Australia,South Australia and Victoria,the beautiful creatures have ventured into New South Wales（NSW）.It's pretty rare for NSW to have such a large number sighted off its coast,especially those with calves.They are on the endangered list,with about 270-275 around South Australia and Victoria.

Around July 18,a single mother and a calf were even spotted changing their direction a little off course,heading into the Hawkesbury River near Sydney's Palm Beach.Based on the NSW south coast,Maree Jackson saw the whales in many other places over a week in August.“They seem to like to bring their babies into shallow water and move towards rock formations.They keep their babies close to the shoreline.I think it's protection rather than anything else.They are very different from humpback whales.Humpbacks are further out to sea and allow their calves to be much more independent.Humpback mums will let their calves play around.They will also come up to beaches,”Jackson said.Listed as endangered since 2000,southern right whales are distinguishable by their black colour.

Whales migrate annually for feeding and breeding（繁殖）purposes.The exact timing of the migration period varies from year to year“depending on water temperature,sea ice,predation risk,prey abundance and the location of their feeding ground”.The majority migrate from June to August before heading back towards the Southern Ocean and Antarctica from September to November.

Reading Check

1.How did the locals feel when they saw the southern right whales?

A.Upset. B.Pleased. C.Confused. D.Confident.

2.Where can Australia's southern right whales be usually spotted?

A.In Victoria. B.In NSW.

C.In Northern Australia. D.In Eastern Australia.

3.Why do southern right whale mothers bring their babies into shallow water according to Jackson?

A.To enjoy a different life. B.To ask for help.

C.To protect the baby whales. D.To search for rock formations.

4.Whales migrate probably because they want to ________.

A.travel along the coastline B.escape being hunted

C.search for food D.feed whale babies

Language Study

Useful expressions

lift one's spirits 使某人興奮 venture into 冒險進入

on the endangered list 在瀕危（物種）的名單上 be distinguishable by 通過……區分