2010.09.09 22:01:07

Administrator

The southern migration has now begun, with whales swimming back south to antarctic waters every day!



It actually was quite an interesting time in the last couple of weeks, as the whales have been doing slightly different actions as opposed to the last two seasons. Usually towards the end of the northern migration you almost dont see any whales swimming south as they would be quite far off the coast. As soon as you dont find whales in close anymore you know the northern migration is over and its time to venture out to sea a bit further to find the main migration line of the southerly swimming whales.



This season, however we had about two weeks of southerly swimming whales while we still had plenty of northerly swimming ones. strange! not sure why, but it might explain why we had a slow start to the season. All the whale movements might have shifted by a couple of weeks causing an overlap of northern and southerly swimming whales. 



That of course results in great whale watching as there have been plenty of whales close to shore doing all the amazing things you want to see! The southern migration is know for whales "mugging" the boat. I explained in a previous post what that means and it sure did happen in the last couple of weeks! Its always great fun if the whales come close to the boat and interact with everyone on board!



I might try to get some underwater footage of the whales soon. NO, unfortunatelty i wont go diving with the whales for you ( we actually saw a big shark the other day! ) a long stick with a camera might do the trick. But we will see how it turns out as the whales would have to come very close to my camera... But if its going to happen its going to happen during the southern migration! So fingers crossed everyone!

2010.08.01 21:37:39

Administrator

We are at the beginning of august now, which means there are some interesting whale watching times ahead!



The northern migration will come to an end around the end of august / beginning of september. As we have the last whales going north, we will have the first whales going south mixed in as well ( we actually had the first southern going whale just a week ago ), so there should be whales all over the place ( the southerly going whales are usually a bit further off the coast than the northern going ones, but again that will all change when there is mothers and calves coming through =)



Unfortunately i will only be able to be on the boat 4 days a week from now on, so there will be things i am missing out on! a good example is last sunday and monday were we had whales breaching 100 times in a row ( also double breaches thrown in ) and a single whale who mugged the boat ( coming very close so the boat cant move ) and also breached some 20m off the boat.



of course i am not the only one on the boat who is able to write to the blog and post pictures. YOU can be a big part as well. Our facebook page is now slowly kicking off with passengers posting pictures they have taken on their cruise for everyone to see. and thats exactly what its all about! For example there are almost daily updates on the facebook page and maybe 1 or 2 posts on the blog here a month, so its well worth having a look!.





Thanks again for being a part of it all and hopefully see you on the boat one day!

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!