Humpback Whales August 2010
Friday 13th – around 5 pods of whales morning trip
Today we had St Josephs College enjoy plenty of whale action, we had one pod of 5 whales travelling north, only young whales not at all active, just happy swimming along, we stayed with this pod for ages as we had no other whales anywhere. Gradually we came across another pod about 500 meters to the right, a cow and calf behind us, very new calf, still white.
Had another 2 pods on the way back into Cooly
Friday 13th – 4 pods on arvo trip
Found whales pretty early, another cow and calf heading north just off Cooly, not at all active, in fact we left them 10 minutes after we found them as the calf was only a few days old. The next pod had 2 whales that split up and went their separate ways, one of them came to the boat and tail dived under the boat. The next pod of 2 whales was breaching and going north. We had dolphins everywhere, hundreds of them. We put the hydrophones over and could hear them talking to each other and in amongst this we could hear the whales – pretty cool stuff. We could hear over the radio that the Surfers Paradise boats had a minke and new calf – fantastic to see the minke’s around.
Saturday 14th – OMG what a day!!!
The sea was dead calm with a reasonable swell, easy to handle no wind, we headed out and came across a pod of 5 whales swimming in circles, well, they heard the boat and came straight over to the boat, we GOT MOBBED !!! well you should have seen me running around, yelling out, screaming with joy as they came to the boat several times over and over and over, we spent one and a half hours with these five whales continually coming to the boat, swimming under the boat, rolling over – absolutely FANTASTIC morning – has to be noted as another favourite day for this whale women !!!!
The afternoon trip was so different, the sea turned sloppy and no whales mobbing the boat, we found a couple of whales that really didn’t do too much, still good, but not as good as this morning – one of those days – you should have been here this morning !!!! that’s not funny !!!!
Overall a fantastic day of whale watching – unreal stuff – money just can’t buy this sort of stuff.
Sunday 15th – one pod of cow and calf
The sea was sloppy today but we had a beautiful cow and her brand new calf – so many calves have been seen this year around Coolangatta that have just been born – what a real treat these babies are, a rare sight and something that most people, well nearly everyone, would never ever see, so how lucky are you to see a brand new humpback calf with it’s mum – pretty special I reckon.
Monday 16th – around 16 pods – OMG someone opened the gate and let them all out this morning !!
Came across our first pod around 9.30am, one whale going north close to Cooly, very calm water and this whale was a diver !!, left him and headed out to the horizon, 2 whales in this pod, another pod behind us, another one in front breaching, another pod to the left, another pod to the right another pod over there – oh my !! pods absolutely everywhere!! BUT !! guess what they were ALL doing – SLEEPING !!! every single pod were in rest mode and doing absolutely nothing, but such a wonderful sight to see so so so many whales. We put the hydrophones over the side and we could hear them singing – great stuff! We then spoted another pod closer into Cooly breaching, so off we went, you beauty there’s a pod AWAKE !! and there he was breaching his little head off all by himself – great little whale
Tuesday 17th – around 5 pods
Today was a great day, we had a nice sunny day, a little wind and a slight chop on the sea, we came across our first pod off Fingal Head, 2 whales breaching going in circles, heaps of tails and breaching from this pair, they swam in circles all trip, they were going nowhere today just happy swimming off Cooly all day, they entertained a few other pods, who came in to see what was going on and then carried on their merry way, heading south, this pod was not active at all, the original pair were still breaching and going in circles – patrolling the area !!! Several other pods in the area, other pods out wider going north breaching, so off we went to see what sort of mood they were in and we came across a beautiful whale with some fabulous white markings – very special and we got some great photo’s of which I will put up here – beautiful whale!!
We also heard that Migaloo was off Cairns today and expected to stay around the area for a few weeks, we normally see him going past us late September – the ears are now to the ground waiting for more news on our famous big white fella!
Some great whale watching this week with whales going North and South, still a lot of whales going North and stacks of new babies going north, should start to see the calves from the north coming past within 2-3 weeks.
How I love the whales, my job, our boat and the fantastic people that join us to see the whales, I don’t think they quite believe just how mad I am out there – I have them all screaming their lungs out with excitement and don’t they love it – the men seem to really get into the yelling out to the whales more than the women – love it !!!!
This has been Carol the ‘Whale Women’ until next time – see you out there with the whales.