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!

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.