2010.07.21 00:21:13

Administrator

Today we saw our first humpback whale calf of the season! We encountered the calf with its mother and an escort whale just a mile off north head.

Usually we see the first calves on their way back south after they have been born up north in warmer waters around Fiji, Tonga, Northern Queensland etc.. around October, November.

Judging by its size and colour it probalby has been born around a week ago!

The further south a calf is born the less chance of survival there is! The reason Humpbacks go on their migration is to give birth in warm and sheltered waters, as the calf does not have an insulating layer of fat yet. The mother will feed its calf around 800/900 liters of very fatty milk per day allowing the calf to bulk up very rapidly building up that all important layer of fat!

So lets hope this calf does make it to the warmer waters with its mother and we see it again on its way back south in a couple of months!

2010.06.02 06:15:30

Administrator

Today we had a fantastic time with the whales! We saw 2 pods of 3 Humpback Whales just 2 miles off the coast of Manly Beach.



Today felt like a "normal" northern migration trip with the whales doing what they are supposed to. In the last couple of weeks the whales have been rather difficult mostly due to the weather as Sydney is facing heavy rainfall and choppy seas for the last two weeks or so. It also seems the whales are taking a little bit more time to come up the coast this year.





This might have many different reasons: maybe the weather change down in Antarctica is happening a little bit later, maybe the currents flow a little bit different this season, maybe there still is plenty of food down there and the whales dont feel the need to leave just yet. What ever the reason may be, we felt that the whale numbers compared to last year around this time are not as strong just yet.

But in the last two days we had a pulse of Humpbacks coming up the coast, so lets hope we get very regular sightings and the numbers will continually build up to around 150 - 200 whales passing Sydney per day during peak season.

2010.05.23 22:36:44

Administrator

The Whale Watching Season 2010 is now officially under way for more than a week now. It has not been an easy start so far as Sydney is facing days of heavy
rain and choppy seas - not ideal for finding and watching whales.



Never the less we are doing fine out there finding Whales, Dolphins, heaps of Sea Birds and even Flying fish have been amongst our Whale Sightings so far.

On the 19. of May we had our first breaching Humpback Whale, jumping twice for us close to our vessel. I was lucky enough to manage to get a couple of pictures which you can see on our  Whale Sightings page.

On the 21. of May i have not been so lucky. We spent some time searching for the whales when we saw an unexpected breach just of Maroubara Beach ( well, breaches are never really expected =). At first i thought it was a Humpback Whale calf as it looked pretty tiny to me.

That would be highly unusual as we start seeing calves around August / September. Most likely it was a Minke Whale, because we never saw the whale again after it was jumping twice. Minkes are known for being very shy and staying away from boats.