Today is Sunday 5.30pm – as I sit here to tell you all about my week – I look back and think just how lucky I am to have such an amazing job – this week has been simply awesome with some spectacular performances by our beautiful whales.  This is what we saw this week:

Monday 19th

Had our first pod by 9.30am, out wider today but breaching around the 62 meter depth (8 miles out) in this pod 1 whale.  We left him at 10.10 and found another pod of 5 whales, another pod of 2 whales, another pod of 2 – we couldn’t believe it – we were surrounded, all whales seemed to be in a playful mood with breaching whales spread far and wide – heaps good day !!

Tuesday 20th

Found breaching whales by 9.25am off Fingal Head, first pod had 2 whales and stayed with them till around 9.55 and headed to a pod breaching off Kingscliff, 3 whales in the pod and breaching several times, we counted 6 breaches straight off, plenty of action with whales chasing each other, tail flukes and tail flicks and then they were joined by another 2 whales and now the pod was 4 strong – loads of action as they got to know each other – eventually they split up and one lonely whale was sent on his way – poor little chap – whilst the other 3 continued on, in this pod one huge whale breached, we reckon he would have been 15 meters – BIG !!, at 10.30 still loads of action, we kept with this pod till it was time to head back – fantastic whales today – boy I have a great job !!

Wednesday 21st

Had our first pod of 9.20am, breaching straight away, whales everywhere.  The pair that we stayed with came to the boat, under the boat a couple of times, one other whale joined the two, but he didn’t stay long and left the pod almost immediately – obviously didn’t fit into that pod !!.  We left this pod around 10.30 and went out to a pod further out, had dolphins today, more whales breaching out wide, this pod was active with one breach within 20 meters of the boat, OH MY GOD !! what a magnificant sight that was, here is a picture plus some other exciting pictures

Thursday 22nd

Found 2 very very friendly whales, came straight over to the boat – pure magic – money just can’t buy this sort of stuff, they swam under the boat heaps of times, everyone was running from one side to the other and screaming out to them -  they came to the back, to the front – another OMG day they were awesome.  The arvo trip gave us fantastic whales again, two came to the boat again and everyone was just as excited as this morning, we had several breaches – loads of fun again.

Friday 23rd

First pod by 9.15 in close off Coolangatta.  Next pod was a double breacher out wide, tail lobbing together, lots of tails and tail flicks by 10.20 still with them, they visited the boat several times and not travelling hard, just happy spending time splashing around – great afternoon

Saturday  24th

Found our first pod by 8.30 (we left early today) one whale in the pod – not active, left him as he dived and found another pod by 8.45 with a cow and a new little calf, only days old if that, very quiet in the water, once we knew there was a calf we left her and found another pod – which was not active either.  Left them as they weren’t much fun and headed out to another pod of 2 whales who came straight to the boat – they must love our boat – or me !!! only joking – they played with us for ages, we could now see another pod coming over to join this pod, we had tail flukes to the right to the left as the pods joined up – great trip plenty of whales.  Afternoon trip had two big whales by 2.05 around 5 miles out breaching, came to the boat – must the day to come to the boat – they were in front, behind us, next to us, tail flukes fantastic.  They rolled upside down under the boat – great whales, we stayed with them for the trip, couldn’t see another pod anywhere.  Great day

Sunday 25th

Whales by 9.30 breaching up north, found our first pod by 9.30 off Coolangatta 3.5 miles out, not at all active, had one spotty one, left them at 10.10 as they were doing nothing.  Next pod big breach out wide, another pod in closer, not active again, another pod off Cook, not active and decided to leave and then as we left two big whales came right close to the boat and gave us all a big fright, as we didn’t even know they were there, we then headed out to a pod that was a little more active, loads of splashing, tail flicks, tail flukes, at least these guys were awake.  We spent time with them and then had to come home as we left off they went breaching, breaching and more breaching, we watched them as we came back into port.  Good day, but whales a bit quiet today, sunday rest day !!

Plenty of whales all week, they are all still travelling north,  we have seen another cow and calf this afternoon on our dive charter, the divers could hear them singing as clear as a bell around Cook Island – simply awesome

this has been Carol ‘The Whale Women’ till next time

Well another week has rushed by and heaps and heaps of whales are migrating – heaps !!  We have now been whale watching for near on 7 weeks and would have seen around 800 whales so far this season, some days we would see around 4-10 whales on a trip and some days 20-30 on a trip, one day we saw 80 whales over two trips.  There are plenty of whales coming from the south, I spoke with Sydney Whale Watching today and they have loads of whales still coming north – I’m ready !!!

Since my last post this is what we have been seeing:

Wednesday – 14th – too rough didn’t go to sea

Thursday – 15th

1 pod of 2 by 9.20am – travelling very fast – so left them and headed south, saw 1 pod of dolphins, flying fish and plenty of birds, sunny and cold day out to sea.  By 9.35 we had another pod off Fingal, pod travelling quick again, another whale was coming to join them, they didn’t want to socialise with him, he left the pod within 10 minutes and headed south !!!  We followed the remaining two, we had loads of tails and slowing up and just happy swimming along.    We left this pod around 10.30 and headed south and found 2 pods off Kingscliff.  We even had an eagle ray jump out of the water twice in front of the boat – amazing.  What a great morning.

Friday – 16th

Cool, choppy with no swell.  Our first pod by 9.25 but they were divers, we left them and had another group of whales coming up from the south, we had 3 pods of 2, 1 and 4 by 10.10 and a large pod of dolphins by 10.30.  All pods moving along slowly and another pod coming up from behind this lot, we had flying fish and a turtle.  We had not one breach today, no tails, very very quiet in the water – a travelling day with no action at all.  But still plenty of whales and a great morning.

Saturday – 17th

First pod by 9.25 with 2 whales, we had several breaches and heaps of tails straight away, a bit different to yesterday !!!  We spenty spent till around 11am with them, they swam under the boat and came up right in front of the boat, they were very calm in the water and were very happy little whales.  We put the hydrophone over the side, no singing today.

Saturday pm

One pod straight off Coolangatta with 2 whales and breaching straight away and porpoising, this pod had a brand new calf, would have been under 24 hours old, we only spent 20 minutes here once we realised she had a calf and the escort was doing the breaching, we left them and went out to several other pods, 5 pods with 2 in each pod, they ended up all around us, all moving slowly and plenty of tails.  Another pod of 2 were breaching and we turned around and found another pod of Coolangatta, very active pod, two more pods off Tugun breaching – heaps and heaps of whales this arvo – great stuff

Sunday 18th

Our first pod of 9.15 one pod of 2, tails and quietly moving along, we left them at 9.45 as they were very quiet.  Went over to a breaching whale in a pod of 2.  Another pod of 2 off Coolangatta who breached and breached, now 10.25 and off Burleigh about 5 miles out to sea.  We left these and headed south again, breaching whales out wide.  We came across two whales pec slapping, breaching, they swam under the boat, tail flukes.  Put the hydrophones over, could hear very faint singing, so the males were a long way off, these two were not singing.  The sea was calm, warmer today, flying fish, not too many birds today – had a great day.

That’s it for me today

The Whale Women

Every day I am blown away by the magic of the humpback whale – every single day !!!  They never cease to amaze me and I never ever get sick of seeing them – I would live out there with them if it were possible !!!

Let’s see what happened out there this week:-

Thur/Fri – did not go to sea – too rough and windy – Yuk !!

Saturday –

By 9.20am we had one pod 3.5 miles off Coolangatta, breaching whales ahead to the north and a pod coming up from behind in the south, breaching out on the horizon – so far so good!!  We had two pods join up and the breaching stopped from the smaller whale, the whale that joined him was HUGE !!!  They stayed together for around 15 minutes and went their separate ways.  We then had a pod of 2 to the right of us, joined by the other whale and heading north at a fast pace.  Topay we saw 2 albatross and terns.  Great day

The afternoon trip we found a diver (a whale that dives and doesn’t surface!) straight up off Coolangatta by 1.30pm so we left him and found a pod splashing around off Cook Island, the pod had 2 whales and they were breaching, we counted 14 breaches and several porpoise movements (head out of water splashing down on the surface – like a dolphin/porpoise).  At 2.45 we had two whales right next to the boat, then in front, more porpoise movement, to the back of boat and played this game for the rest of the trip, had everyone very excited let me tell you – me too !!!.  We could see more whales out wide, about 3 pods out further.  More albatross this arvo.

Sunday

We had 2 pods by 9.20am and one in the pod breaching heaps, by 10am they had gone quiet, go tired I think, they came up behind the boat, under the boat, in front, just having a quick look at us and moved on out to sea.  We headed south could see nothing anywhere and then we spotted a pod off Kingscliff splashing around with his pectoral fins.  As soon as they heard the boat they came straight to the boat, well one of them came right over whilst the other one stood off, the one that came to the boat swam upside down under the boat and we could hear him singing through the boat – I HAVE NEVER HEAD THAT BEFORE, IT ECHOED THROUGH THE BOAT -everyone thought I had a CD on !!!!  We can hear them when we put the hydrophones over the side, but not just through the boat !! wow.  This spectacular whale pectoral slapped on his side next to the boat, splashing us, he moved around the boat and looked at everyone – people could not believe that they saw a whales EYE !!!  they said – he just looked at me !!!  my god how good is this !!!  An amazing day with an amazing whale – when he was finished doing his humban spotting he toddled off with his mate !!!  How did this day rate – 8 out of 10

The afternoon trip we found whales off Kingscliff in close a pod of 2, they didn’t want anything to do with us so we left them.  Found one whale just happily swimming along, found found heaps of dolphins with heaps of babies int the group.

Found another pod of 4 whales – not active – most probably been travelling together for some time by the time we got to the them, hence how settled they were.  Another pod coming up from the south, all whales quiet in the water this arvo.  Plenty of whales about.  By 3.20pm they were all starting to wake up and the pod of turned into a pod of two and the breaching started, we followed this pod all the way to Surfers and they played for the entire trip, once they had woken up !!  We put the hydrophones down and could hear them singing – that was awesome and everyone thought once again we had a cd on – but no it was the pair of whales that we had spent the afternoon with and they were now happily breaching and rolling over – we left them having loads of fun together -  fantastic.

Monday 9am

By 9.35 found 2 pods off Coolangatta – divers again – so left them and headed south.  Found 3 more pods of Kingscliff with calm conditions, then we could see 5 pods with 2 whales in each pod heading straight for us, they were off Kingscliff and we could see heaps of splashing and puffing and loads of whales all lined up heading our way – what a sight !!!  They were all racing and we couldn’t believe how fast they were all travelling – 6 knots and they did this for 1 hour and 10 minutes,  the lead pod just powered forward, one of the whales breached twice and the pods were now joining up with one group holding 5 whales, the other pod had 2 following them with another one of the pods splitting off and going out to sea, one pod of 2 sped out in front and left the pod of 5, the group got larger now 6.  Now we had 3 groups racing on the left and a pod on the right and a pod in front.  The middle pod on the left started breaching, whilst still racing forward.  This group of strong males had one very large whales, we think around 16 meters at least breached not far from the boat – spectacular – then one large whale in the pod on the right breached – he too was very large – we left all pods and headed back to Coolangatta and found another pod of 5 whales off Coolangatta – oh my god – what a trip this one was – how did this one rate 8/10 – awesome stuff today

Tuesday – 9am

Found our first pod by 9.25 – pod of 2 came straight to the boat, under the boat and off they went, one other whale was chasing them and we had 4 big breaches and 35 minutes later they are still going strong.  Found another pod had heaps of tails, at one stage had whales all around us.  Put the hydrophones over the side – magic stuff once again !! 

This arvo found one pod off Cook, had breaching and travelling around 4.5knots, left this pod and travelled south, round 2 pods of Kingscliff, one pod of 2 and one of 4 whales.  Another pod breaching off Kingscliff. We stayed with this group all afternoon, at one stage we had 9 whales all together, birds following them picking up any scraps – magic stuff. We had heaps of whales all pushing and shoving and travelling fast, we reckon there was a bit of hanky panky going on here as one poor whale just kept on coming up with her head gasping for air (we reckon) and the rest were all testosterone filled males chasing her – she put up a good fight and they all travelling quick together for over one hour.  A few of them tired and split off and left 5 in the group, we left them at 4 and they were still going !!!  Had one dolphin today – this trip – 8/10 again

The whales have been simply amazing – they are still streaming north in droves – see you out there with the best whale watching trip you will ever do

This has been Carol ‘The Whale Women” till next time.

The season has been simply awesome with heaps and heaps of whales swimming past.  We have had brilliant weather and very friendly seas!!!  Good conditions for the entire family

Monday 5th – did not go to sea

Tuesday 6th –

3 pods off Cabarita Beach all breaching – what a sight!! As we approached we could see them all playing around with some pec slapping and all three pods were within 500 meters of each other – fantastic.  We saw one turtle, all this action by 9.25 am – great stuff.  The 3 pods had now turned into 4 pods and plenty of action from all of them.  We travelled with the pods, they started to move away from each other and we then returned to one pod that was coming up from behind them.

Plenty of action and moving quick now.  The whales are all travelling in large groups again, quite evident with big gaps in between the travelling pods.

In the afternoon we had whales breaching off Tugun by 2.05 around 5 miles out to sea, breaching several times, in fact this whale did not stop breaching for the entire hour that we spent with him, we worked out he was breaching 10 times every 5 minutes, we were getting tired just watching him over and over – he finally stopped and started pec slapping and then he was tired and slowly swam out to sea – Wow What a show that was !!  We saw terns today.  We had another pod off Cooli and Cook around 3.30pm.  We could see more whales out wider breaching.  Great day today.

Wednesday 7th

We searched and searched over many miles of sea this morning, searching, searching, one of those days were the big group had gone through around 8am and now we had nothing – no this couldn’t be happening – no whales in 4 years – no way were we going to let this happen !!!!  Then Ariana saw in the sun light a splash and a blow and then we didn’t see it again for some time, but we were now hopeful – we had a whale !!!  We went over and searched and there he was and what a beautiful whale he turned out to be – he spent one hour with us, swiming in behind the boat, in front, on the side, this side, that side, underneath us – what a wonderful whale and very curious and a little playful, he was swiming ahead of us and then circling around underneath us and coming in behind us – everyone was thrilled to bits with our little mate.

We had an Albatross today – gee they are beautiful – great day

Thursday 8th – didn’t go to sea too rough and very very windy

This has been Carol the ‘Whale Women’ until next time

More exciting stuff here on the Gold Coast – Southern Hemisphere Humpbacks on their way North migrating past Coolangatta in big groups

Wednesday – 30th June - 6 whales

We came across our first pod off Kingscliff at 9.30 with 4 in the pod and very active, this pod had one whale in it that was possibly the largest whale I have ever seen in all my years whale watching – this whale was huge and very black, hardly any white on him at all, nice big black belly with white spots and he was breaching like crazy, we counted several breaches by 10.05 and still going, I reckon this whale would have been 16 meters minimum this was an OMG !! whale and big and beautiful, we stayed with this group until around 11.10am, so a whole hour and a half of fantastic whale watching.  We left the pod to travel on their merry way, all still travelling together and headed off closer to shore making our way back in and came across a turtle and a small pod of dolphins. 

We could see breaching whales off Burleigh and we stopped to watch breaching whales off Coolangatta near Cook Island.

Wednesday afternoon – heaps and heaps

Spotted our first pod straight off Tugun, with several pods spread all over the place, the Tugun pod were breaching, we could see another pod breaching off Surfers.  We had two pods off to the right and 3 pods off to the left and another pod behind us – whale action this arvo.  The pod on the left was tail lobbing and pectoral fin slapping whilst the pod on the right was breaching, with one whale continually breaching.

One pod of 4 whales pectoral slapping and spy hopping with each other, obvously the afternoon sun was promoting a lot of run and games for the whales as they chased each other and played all afternoon.  One whale continued to breach all the way to Surfers for us, we had a spectacular afternoon with some great footage.

Thursday 1st July – 7 pods – 15 or so whales

First pod spotted by 9.30 around 4 miles off shore – not at all active, so we left him and headed south to a breaching pod off Kingscliff, this pod was different, they were awake and breaching – ya hoo!!  We spotted another pod coming up from the south, another 2 pods off to the side of us and one off to the right all by 10.15am.  Another pod of 2 breached right near the boat and travelled next to us for a short period with another pod behind us tail lobbing around 10.30am – plenty of action and by 11am we had a pod of whales double breaching – yes breaching together – another OMG – We were so happy with todays events we sent the footage off to Chanel 7 news and they put it on the news that night in the weather section.

We saw one Albatross today

Does this get any better !!!!

Friday – 2nd July – sleepy whales

9.20 first pod off Coolangatta, not at all active – in fact they dived and not to be seen again !! they do that !! but by 9.30 we had found another pod that was more interactive, a pod of 3 off Cooli with tail flicks and they came close to the boat for a bit of a look see !!  by 10.05 we had seen around 5 pods.  Another pod coming up from the south and another pod out wider – all whales were sleepy today – rest day and no bird life either

Saturday 3rd July -

9.25 whales breaching off Cooli, had a couple of breaches and then they settled into a nice swimming patten.  We left this pair at 9.45 as they were not that active and headed down to Kingscliff, we could see one pod out wider but headed south to a pod off Kingscliff – whales not active again today, sun shining, sloppy sea and not as cold today – it has been freezing.  We saw 2 albatross and one dolphin.  Not a lot of bird activity either today.

We found a pod of 4 off Cook Island all travelling in a line and one whale in the group breaching, he was a handsome whale with mostly black tones and a blochy white belly.  By 11am we had seen 12 whales plus another large pod out wider.

The whales are still travelling in these wide spread big groups, so much different to previous years, they are now forming large travelling groups, as we noticed last year, this is a good sign I guess as their numbers increase they are forming big social groups – excellent.  Makes it harder to find sometimes because the groups are spread out over several kilometers for eg: one group will travel together, say a 100 in the group, spread over a large area, then there will be several kilometers until the next group comes along – we still are having loads and loads of whales and it is great to see their numbers are up, we are having so much fun.

Must run need to go and see more big fat whales today (Sunday)

This has been Carol the ‘Whale Women” until later!!

Sunday 27th June  – around 10 whales

The whales are really starting to come through thick now, one pod of one whale straight off Coolangatta by 9.20am, not terribly interested in the boat, so we left him and headed out to a breaching pod on the Horizon, came across a pod of dolphins off Coolangatta.  We reached our pod and he was still breaching – what a fabulous little whale.  We left him happily moving along and headed south to find another pod of one off Coolangatta, not very active, just having a little rest, then we spotted another pod of 2 coming up from the south and another pod again behind them – all in all a great day out with several pods spread out.

Monday 28th June – around 80 whales – yes that’s not a miss print – 80 whales !!  around 30 in the morning and 50 in the afternoon

Found whales off Kingscliff at 9.35 breaching, seas were good.  We saw a couple of ganets, our pod had 2 whales, we then saw another pod further south breaching.  We then came across heaps and heaps of whales in pods of 2 and 4 they were everywhere, they came close to the boat several times and had one pod breach really close to the boat – the crowd went wild with excitement!!  What a great morning.

Monday 28th June we headed out in search of Migaloo, as we had heard that he was sighted off Byron Bay early this morning, so we expected him to take around 7 hours to get to Coolangatta – off we went and did we find some whales – oh my god – this afternoon – I have never ever in my 10 years of watching whales seen so many whales in one day!  We travelled from Coolangatta for miles down past Pottsville in search of the big white fella and came across many many pods of adult humpbacks – these whales were huge and travelling reasonably quick north, they were spread for miles and miles from close in to shore to way out wide – what a sight I just couldn’t believe the amount of whales – but no Migaloo. 

There has been a few sightings of white whales – there are at least two travelling the coast – Migaloo is pure white and Baloo is white with black markings on his tail I think – so people can be confused.  But now we know that Migaloo is definately up past Fraser Island and safe for the time being.  What a day!!

Tuesday 29th – over 20 – 30 whales

Another fantastic day out to sea with whales everywhere.  We had dolphins in the river and plenty of dolphins out to sea with plenty of bait fish for them by 9.15.  The ocean was nice a calm today.  We came across one juvenile 3 miles off Coolangatta, another breached off Burlegith and another pod out wider and a pod int he south, flying fish today, they are fantastic.  A large flock of ganets resting on the water.  Came across of pod of 4, they were divers, so left them headed south, found a pod of 4 off Cooli in close, breaching and saw another pod breaching off Cook Island.  Had more whales all in around Cooli and Cook Island this morning.  One sleepy little whale came close to the boat for a look all this by 10.20am – oh my goodness so much to see.  We headed off to a breaching pod of 4, with pectoral fin slapping and one of them breached just in front of the boat – how cool was that !!! let me tell you that was Cool !!!  Heaps more ganets.  More dolphins and more whales what a great day out – now wonder I love whale watching season – so much fun and joy – happy happy happy

Must go and watch more beautiful whales – will come back to this post tomorrow for the updates for the rest of the week – it has been AWESOME !!! every day has been sensational

This has been Carol the “Whale Women”