2010.07.18 00:00:00

Administrator

On Sunday we encountered an entangled humpback whale, who was caught in some sort of fishing line!



we first spotted the whale around 2 miles off the coast of Ben Buckler, which is the northern headland of Bondi Beach.

It was swimming in a very unusual way caused by the fishing line. The line itself was so thin, that it took the crew a good 20min to figure out what was actually going on! the line was caught ins the mouth of the whale and was going across its body to the right of the tail. there was a fair bit of tention on the line, so the whale was unable to arch is back and go on regular down times.

We informed ORRCA who sent a boat out to the whale the next day. They were  unable to locate the whale again, which doesnt have to be bad news. Towards the end of our cruise it seemed like the whale detangled himself to some extend so he could go on regular down times again. ORRCA was looking for a whale in distress and couldnt find this guy because we was maybe not sticking out as a whale in distress.

All we can do is cross out fingers that everything went alright for this Humpback Whale!

Unfortunately whales get entangled in fishing lines every once in a while. if you do happen to spot a whale in distress call the ORRCA hotline under (02) 9415 3333.

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.