2009.10.12 03:39:41

Administrator

Yesterday we have been lucky enough to encounter some more Killer Whales on our whale watching tour. It has been the 2. sighting this season so far and was even more spectacular than the first one.

We were watching a pair of Humpbacks very close into the shore just off Bondi Beach when we got a report of Orcas attacking a Humpback Whale 8 miles off the coast. We set our sails and got there as fast as we could. Arriving at the scene we found 3 Orcas cruising around, no signs of any Humpback Whale in the area. We must have missed out on the main attack by 10/15min or so because we discovered floating pieces of whale in the water, a fair sized chunk possibly from the jaw area.

It is most likely that a Humpback Whale has been killed just minutes before we got there. The dead whale would sink to the bottom due to its negative boyancy, not to be seen on the surface again (at least not for a while, as far as i know over time the carcass will eventually float back to the surface, at least whats left of it ) . A once in a lifetime opportunity to witness such an event: On the way to where it all happened i had certain images going through my mind, seing my pictures on the cover of national geographic =)

Of course it is a tragic event for a whale to be killed, but thats nature right there and thats what Killer Whales do. Hunting in packs trying to suffocate the whale by pushing him down when it tries to come to the surface to breath. Not an easy task to take on a big Humpback whale, not even for a group of orcas. Apparently one of them has been whacked by the whales tail. So maybe an Orca has been killed there as well.

Im not 100% sure but i think when we spotted those orcas the first time still a mile away or so there was a male Killer Whale in that pod ( very distinctive big straight dorsal fin ) that has not been seen again while we were there. So a theory could be that that male Orca has been tailslapped by a Humpback and lost consciousness resulting in drowning. Again a tragic event but again thats nature and a once in a lifetime opportunity to be there watching.

2009.10.06 10:38:51

Administrator

Just letting you guys know whats going on on the boats at the moment:

We are now in the month of october. In terms of whale watching that means that we get regular sightings of mothers and calves. The southern migration has started around late august, beginning of september with the first whales passing Sydney on their way south again.

Most of those whales are sitting in the east australien current which is flowing south with anything from 2 to 4 knots. That current can usually be found quite far off shore ( 15-20 miles ) so it is a bit of a hike to get to those whales, but patience does pay off with those ones because they are very curious and come close to the boat often resulting in a mugging.

Mothers and calves are different. They are coming through very close to shore. The reason for that is that the mother tries to protect its calf from predators like orcas or sharks. They are seeking shelter close to the coastline where it is less likely to be attacked than in the open ocean where a possible threat could come from any side in a three dimensional ocean - close to shore there is one side less to worry about.

Calves are usually good fun because they are very curious, swimming towards the boat or breaching for two hours non stop. Most calves would have been born 2 or 3 months back up in the warmer water of the coral sea. So for most of them it might be the first time to see a big boat like ours. So its just natural to venture over to have a quick look whats going on. Breaching non stop might be a little training session to learn how to jump out of the water properly. Often demonstrated by the mother in a most spectacular manner.

so here is a couple of pictures that have been taken on the boat recently:

2009.09.23 02:57:10

Administrator

Today we had to cancel our whale watching trips. There is a dust storm over Sydney at the moment reducing visibility down to 10m or so. Conditions like that make it impossible to spot whales in the ocean =)

A dust storm like this hasnt been seen in Sydney for a very long time, certainly not by me in almost 2 years living here. So i thought i share those amazing pictures with you guys:











pretty crazy conditions i must say. When i woke up this morning around 6 am i was looking through the blinds of my window thinking: hmmm, usually the sky is not orange like that! I went down to the beach to see what the surf is like and took my camera with me ( being a photographer you know... =)

quite a few people running around with their cameras, trying to capture the best shots to send back to earth ( from Mars that is! )

Tomorrow it should be back to normal with all the dust getting blown out to sea by a strong westerly wind, so there will be some whale updates very soon.

We had some pretty fantastic trips recently with whales mugging the boat. I will write something about that soonish!