The season is still going pretty strong for this time of year – we are seeing heaps of cows and their calves and plenty of adults happily going past – still travelling slow – this will probably speed up by mid week.
Thursday 21st october – confused whales today
NZ had another earth tremour last night – this upsets the whales behaviour, they really don’t know what they are doing, they are going north when they should be going south, they swim in circles and a very quiet in the water – this happened when NZ had their last earthquake – it upsets the whales. We eventually found 2 whales of Broadbeach going very slow going north, hard to find them. Another whale ahead of this pod, he too going north. We had one gannet, shearwaters and dolphins. Whales very very quiet in the water today.
Friday 22nd – much better day – whales more active
Had 3 pods. Had a cow and calf by 9.15 in close off Cooli – beautiful markings on the left hand side of the calf. Calm sea and no wind – glorious.
Next pod, cow and calf off 9 mile reef (around 4.5 miles out), tail flicking, very slow and not really going anywhere, then headed out to sea, we had one breach from this pod.
Next pod, cow and calf splashing around off Tugun towards Cooli, couple of breaches from the calf.
Had a turtle the odd dolphin, 2 gannets and shearwaters. Nice day
Saturday 23rd – nice calm day had whales by 9.30am
First pod had 3 whales off cooli going north !!!
Next pod had 2 whales off cooli going north again !!
The pod of 3 whales now going south and moved out to 9 mile reef, they came under the boat. We left these and headed north and found 3 more pods off Cooli/Tugun and in a row going in circles. One pod was pec slapping, one pod tail lobbing and one pod breaching. Had dolphins, 1 gannet – great day.
Sunday 24th – had whales by 9.15am – 4 pods
Several pods today 2 whales straight off Cooli but they were divers, so we left them and went out to another pod of 2 – divers again, more whales out around 10 miles breaching, came back to Cook and had 2 cows and 2 calves, one pod of tail flicking and tail lobbing and the other little calf was breaching heaps and heaps all in nice and close to the beach off Fingal now. These two pods were not travelling side by side but around 50 meters apart, they eventually headed out to sea to get around Cook Island – great show
Monday 25th – didn’t go to sea
Tuesday 26th – 3 pods and found first pod by 9.25
Had a pod of dolphins straight up – thank goodness as we had Ranger Stacey from Totally Wild onboard today doing a film shoot for her show and it was about the research on our dolphins – we had stacks of dolphins all trip !!! We found a pod of 2 whales off Cook, travelling slowly south and very relaxed with pec slapping – nice. Found two more whales going east and then we came across a pod of 4 whales. Now this was entertaining – we had 3 males chasing a female all over the ocean and she was not happy Jan !!! She was tail thrashing at them, her head was being pushed out of the water as they landed on her and she tried to swim off and they just kept on keeping on – poor thing. The pod eventually slowed up – well I guess they got tired !! An amazing sight though, we have seen this quite a bit up here this year.
Wednesday 27th – 4 pods and found our first pod by 9.30am
A beautiful calm day, found our first pod breaching and pec slapping, double breachin around 5 miles out from Tugun, travelling in circles in about 47 meters of water – going all directions and just happy playing. Next pod a breaching whale off Cook about 5 miles out, next pod of 2 whales off Cook going south and our final pod a cow and calf going in circles off Fingal in close and the calf was breaching happily.
Took a trip over to Cook Island to see the turtles, found a few swimming on the north side of the island. Great day.
28th October – 4 pods found first pod by 9.15am
Found whales straight of the bar, had 2 pec slapping and breaching heading south on the north side of Cook Island. Next pod was a cow and calf travelling quick south. Next pod 2 whales off Cook heading south and final pod of cow and calf near Cook. We had dolphins again today – nice day
Friday 29th found 4 pods first pod by 9.30am
Whales out on 9 mile (4.5 miles out) all pods going south. Had whales all around us, so we were in the thick of it for the entire trip. Two pods joined together and made a pod of 5 whales and weren’t they fantastic, they were travelling around 4.5 knots and powering ahead, once again mating activity going on with one female now being chased by 4 males, the females head constantly out of the water and loads of noisy males huffing and puffing – great stuff. We had one other pod out wider and another in closer.
Saturday 30th 3 pods of whales found by 9.15am
Found whales straight off the bar with a cow and calf happily pec slapping, mum was doing all the slapping and the calf and escort just moving along with her. We spent one hour with this group. After about half an hour the calf started pec slapping (slow learner) as mum rolled over and double pec slapped – what a beautiful sight!! We spots another 2 pods just out further off Cooli, all mum’s pec slapping has now attracted another pod of whales to her and then travelled for the rest of the trip together heading out to sea – lovely. We had some dolphins with the whales and a few shearwaters today. Beautiful calm sea, very warm out there today. Great day out.
Just looking back over the year – how lucky have we been – we have been finding whales every single day that we go out to sea and normally by that 9.15 – 9.30am mark – that is awesome. It has been an amazing year and we have one week left.
I went to a Sea Shepherd fund raiser last night and had the pleasure of meeting Captain Paul Watson – what a legend he is – so knowledgeable – so kind – so passionate – I would have to say that he is the MAN to save our planet – if only stupid humans would listen to him and stop being so dam greedy and disgusting with our planet. To listen to his stories and his understanding of our marine environment enspires me even more to save whales, sharks, dolphins and turtles. May he never stop the fight to save our planet from human destruction - we must stop killing everything before there is nothing left – and the cruelty is unbelievable – it sickens my heart.
He spoke about how we are over fishing our waters – did you know that the pig industry is one of the highest end users of fish product – it gets fed to the pigs !!! Next highest is the common cat – all this destruction for cats and pigs – come on what happen to scraps !!! So when you eat Pork or own a domestic cat you are helping the destruction of our marine environment- you only have to take a walk down the woolies isle and see how much cat food in tins is there – it is a huge industry – just for cats !!! feed you cats scraps – not canned fish it is destroying our marine environment!!
That’s me done for the day – lot’s to think about now after hearing Paul speak last night – I knew it all before – but now it is even more in my head !!!
This has been Carol the ‘Whale Women” until next time.
