What an amazing season we have had this year, so many beautiful humpback whales swimming past Coolangatta and fabulous weather shining down on the Gold Coast.

It’s Saturday 19th September, the sun is shining, the sea is calm and we have plenty of humpback whales playing just off Tweed Heads this morning.  Not overally interested in the boat, but very interested in each other, we had humpbacks chasing each other all over the ocean and around the boat today – fantastic stuff.

In the afternoon, heaps and heaps of humpbacks all just lazing around, they were breaching and having a whale of a time !!! sorry !!  Great afternoon.

Sunday 20th Sept another beautiful calm day off Coolangatta we possibly had around 30 humpback whales on the trip this morning, not overally active, all swiming in circles, happy just hanging around, had about 6 calves today, one pod of humpbacks stayed with us and followed us around for most of the trip.

This afternoon, choppy conditions, no swell – pretty good.  The whales were out wider this afternoon, plenty of humpbacks swam close to the boat, they rolled over and breached – lovely day – had large turtles, flying fish and dolphins.

Monday 21st Sept - humpback whales going north today – harder to find early on and then heaps around 11am.

Tuesday and Wednesday too windy stayed home.

Thursday 24th – really calm off the Gold Coast today, found a couple of single whales racing north, not very active. Found a cow and calf in closer to shore of Tugun, absolutely fantastic, the cow brought her 4 meter calf straight to the boat, she let the calf look at us from both sides of the boat, from the back and then just moved off, as if to say ‘there you go junior, that’s what humans look like!’  FANTASTIC EXPERIENCE.

Friday 25th – humpbacks still going north – amazing.  Great trips morning and afternoon.

Saturday 26th – a rough day – cancelled trips.  So many calves breaching madly off Coolangatta, must have been around 8 pods all having a great time in the rough conditions.

Sunday 27th – heaps of whales about – whales still not moving south in a hurry, just relaxed and happy. 

Monday 28th – choppy conditions with fantastic whales and heaps and heaps of calves and adults all moving steadily south.  Calves breached all trip, cow brought her calf to the boat and everyone was beside themselves with excitement.

The season is in full swing with plenty of humpback whales now heading south, not in a hurry yet and not too far out from shores,  upto 3.5 miles out to sea, so not far.

Migaloo has been spotted off Burnett Heads last Monday 21st and today he was spotted off Byron Bay, so he’s on his way home now to safe waters we hope – keep those Japanese whalers well away from our whales – go the Sea Shepherd and Green Peace.

Happy whale watching or whale encounters until next time this has been Carol the ‘whale women’.

The last time I wrote was the 7th September oh my god, that long ago and how much fun have we been having since then !! let me tell you !!! The Humpbacks enjoying the Gold Coast weather and calm seas.

So many whales about going past the Tweed, most of them are going south now, the odd one or two still making their way north, had a cow and calf today – Tuesday 8th September, the little one was playing on 9 mile reef, without his mother, who was watching from a distance, she called him back though!!

Wednesday 9th – nice calm conditions off Coolangatta and heaps and heaps of whales all reasonably close off shore, had 2 calves today.

Thursday – heaps and heaps of  humpback whales off Coolangatta- all really relaxed and hanging around, whales chasing each other around the boat, they were going that fast at each other they spun the boat around, no danger and very exciting !  Two big whales came to the boat and played with us for ages and ages – we had people crying – a highly emotional experience!

Friday another day in paradise – beautiful calm conditions off Coolangatta - pure magic – had whales straight off the bar – two whales once again mobbed the boat, they splashed us, rolled over, swam under the boat, around the boat, spy hopped, looked at us – I just love this life so much – these whales truly amaze me – they are so in tune with us – it’s amazing and I’m lovin’ it !! and so are my guests – they can’t believe what they are experiencing !!! sooooo sooooo good !!

Saturday 12th Sept – beautiful calm sea again heaps and heaps of whales off Coolangatta  all whales chasing each other again, humpback whales came under the boat in the morning trip – WELL YOU WOULDN’T BELIEVE THE AFTERNOON TRIP – OH MY GOD !!!  so many whales we didn’t know which way to look, we had dolphins and turtles and even flying fish, we had pectoral fin slapping, tails, we would have seen around 65 humpack whales today – and yes that is an OH MY GOD !!!!!!!!!

Sunday 13th – those humpbacks are at it again – heaps and heaps all relaxed and steadily going south, around 15 pods today we put the HYDROPHONE in the water and we could hear them singing – that’s another OMG !!! I was so excited !

Plenty of breaching whales in the arvo trip

It’s all good, the southern migration is well and truly underway, haven’t had a lot of calves through, today (18th) had quite a young calf trying to breach and that was pretty cool, but not a lot yet, the season I believe is going to be late as the calves haven’t really been coming through yet.

We took the kids from Shearwater Primary School out to see the whales last Tuesday that had a fantastic day and the whales played up a real treat for them, here’s a pic of some of the kids:

Shearwater Primary School

Humpback Whale

Sunday 30th August 09 – the whales were quiet in the water but we found the beautiful humpbacks straight off the Tweed Bar, they heard us and came a little closer for a better look – not that interested !!  Few whales still going north and slow in the water.  Whales diving a bit today.

Monday 31st August 09 – Whales still quiet and in no hurry at all.

Tuesday 1st August 09 – well today was a different story – oh my god !! how good is this – two big humpbacks came straight over to the boat, they rolled over, spy hopped and played games with us for around one hour – of course I was running all over the boat – again !! screams of joy were emenating from my soul at the pure delight of these magnificant mammals brought me and my very excited passengers much joy !!!  How cheeky they were and we loved it!!!

 Look at me – I am beautiful !!!

This very day we were alerted to an entangled whale off Kirra Beach, a concerned resident from one of the apartments called us to see if we could help the whale,. We left the two whales immediately to attend to this entangled whale, which was 20 minutes away from us, as we were about 6 miles off shore and the entangled whale was off Kirra Beach in the shark nets. We arrived approaching the whale carefully and confirmed that there was indeed a very entangled whale.  This 8-9 meter whale had wrapped himself so firmly in the shark nets that he was not going anywhere, luckily he was upright and still breathing.  He was not struggling, which was a good sign and patiently waited for help.  Authorities arrived and proceeded to free the whale – the whale had been there since around 9am and was eventually freed around 4pm – with the help of a very concerned whale friend who was slowly making it’s way across to the entangled whale as the rescue team worked tirelessly, this other whale was coming to the rescue himself, he became quite angry with the rescuers and thrashed around and possibly encouraging the entangled whale to get moving and then it was on the entangled whale took off and somehow this freed the whale after most of the nets had already been cut away, you should have seen the happiness at the whale being freed, he was one happy happy whale and he took off with his new found friend and I am sure very appreciative of his human friends that saved his life!!!  A fantastic end to a grim beginning – I totally disagree with shark nets, they not only trap these poor whales but turtles, dolphins and other marine life – I doubt whether they even catch any sharks !!!!

Wednesday 2nd August 09 – plenty of whales about, nice and quiet in the water – not active today but still great whales.

Thursday 3rd August 09 found hundreds of dolphins today all playing with a pod of humpbacks – this was the most magical thing I had seen in a long time, they swam around the boat, heaps and heaps of dolphins, playing and jumping everywhere, for as far as we could was dolphins.  Awesome.  We saw around 8 pods of whales too

Friday 4th August 09 seas a bit rougher today, whales about 4 miles off shore, had around 6 pods today, but not active today

Saturday 5th August 09 heaps and heaps and heaps of whales today, two whales came close the boat, one whale just hung upside down for ages, his tail straight up in the air we thought that this may have been a Cow feeding, but it was not, all whales going slow and not travelling just happy hanging around

The afternoon trip was fantastic, they came to the boat, swam under the boat, around the boat, everyone was excited.  We named a whale today ‘Milky’

 Milky so named by the Dawson Family

Sunday 6th August 09 – heaps and heaps of whales again today and they were diving a lot

The afternoon trip still heaps of whales but more activity with pectoral fin slapping, rolling over – great trip

Monday 7th August 09 heaps and heaps of whales again all in really close today, seas choppy.  Several pods all within a small area all going in circles and not really going anywhere.  We had our first Calf of the season today, fantastic stuff.  Great day.

With the southern migration well and truly underway, we can expect some fantastic stuff over the next couple of months with the babies now on their way back to the Antarctic.

Happy whale watching and hope to see you out on the boat real soon

This has been Carol ‘The whale women’ until next time.