MIGALOO.... Again!

Yes, it's THAT time again!

 

  

Whale Watching time !

 

 

The time when the Humpback whales make their journey from Antarctica along the eastern coast of Queensland to the northern tip of Australia where they give birth in the warm waters of the north, mate and finally travel back to Antarctica as the water warms up down there again.

 

 



 It's wonderful to hear that Migaloo, the albino whale, has been sighted once again off the far north Queensland coast. (http://www.cairns.com.au/article/2013/08/08/246355_local-news.html)

If you've never heard of Migaloo you might like to read this post.

 

Cheers.

WHALES IN THE NEWS TODAY

In the past I have posted about the whales that travel up the Queensland coast from Antarctica every year to give birth to their calves in the warmer waters of the north.

 

We get quite excited about them and a thriving tourist industry has developed around their visits to Hervey Bay each year.

 We're very protective of these wonderful creatures with many restrictions placed on humans approaching too close to them in their yearly journey.

 

 

The whales we see most often are Humpback whales - huge, harmless creatures some of which we have come to know quite well and even named ( Migaloo for instance - read about him !).

 

This week's news has been about a different type of whale-

the Orca or Killer Whale - a much smaller whale

 

 

 

Now these whales are fearsome predators of the sea that are not usually seen close to shore.

 

This week an Orca and it's young calf became stranded and died in the shallow waters of Hervey Bay.

Worse news was to follow as the rest of the pod were also in grave danger of becoming beached and stranded as they waited for the dead whales to join them on their journey north. 

 

 

Wildlife officers worked desperately to try to drive the pod out to sea

 

 but it looked like the whole pod were doomed as they refused to leave without the dead members

 

 

 

and became stranded on sand banks at low tide.

 

 

Wildlife Rangers worked tirelessly to protect them from the heat of the sun until the tide returned and the whales coud be refloated and guided into deeper water.

 

In desperation the dead calf was towed into deeper waters in the hope that the rest of the pod - numbering 5 - would follow but although they are in deeper water now it is feared they will return to the shallow water and become stranded again.

 

A team of rangers is closely monitoring the whales until they have cleared Hervey Bay and moved on to deeper water.



MIGALOO

He's back!

I think I mention him every year  but it's so good to hear he's still around and seemingly doing well.

Migaloo, the pure white humpback whale is back frolicking in the waters off the Gold Coast beaches east of Brisbane. 

Naturally these are not my photos.

Isn't he astounding?

Click  here  if you'd like to see a video taken yesterday of this lovely creature.

Cheers.

GOOD THINGS ABOUT WINTER IN QUEENSLAND No 1 -Hey There Humpy

It's whale time all along the Queensland coast.

(Here's a little background information.)

HUMPBACK whales are already being spotted making their winter migration along our coastline with the biggest pods since pre-whaling days expected to pass Byron Bay and the Gold Coast this year.
Southern Cross University marine ecology research centre director Professor Peter Harrison said up to 17,000 humpbacks would make the northern migration this year as the population continued to recover by about 10 per cent a year after nearly being wiped out during the whaling years.
"This year will be very special; there will be more humpback whales along our coastline for the first time since mid last century," he said.
"Some whales have already been spotted along our coastline migrating up to the Great Barrier Reef from mid-April and the peak migration will start in the last two weeks of June.
"The humpback whale population was estimated between 26,000 and 30,000 but then crashed down to possibly a few hundred during the massive whaling in the middle of last century and became economically extinct.
"In the early 1950s, illegal whaling by the Soviet Union in the southern Australian waters killed 25,000 humpbacks in just two summers and virtually wiped them out."
Australia's last whaling station in Albany, Western Australia, closed in 1978.
Prof Harrison said about 1500 extra humpback whales were this year starting their migration from Antarctic waters up the eastern coast of Australia to the Great Barrier Reef where they will spend the winter breeding and calving.
The peak group is due to appear in waters off Byron Bay and the Gold Coast from mid-June.
Travelling between 100-140km a day, it will take the whales about two months to make the 6000-8000km migration north.

A whale breaching off the Gold Coast this week. Picture: Sea World Whale Watch Source: The Courier-Mail

Prof Harrison said the whales did not tend to travel in packs until they reached Byron Bay, with the most easterly point of Australia creating a ``funnelling effect'', grouping the whales together in huge numbers and providing amazing whale-watching opportunities.

Famous albino whale Migaloo is expected to appear late June.

Do you remember I wrote about him here ?

By the time some of the last stragglers make their way to northern Queensland in late July, some of early migrators are already heading back south for the summer."
The above article was written byTanya Westthorp

Around September the whales and their calves rest up for a while in Hervey Bay on their way back to the Antarctic so it is a great place to observe them frolicing in the waters of the bay. As you can imagine they are a great tourist attraction but we are very protective of our whales.
There are many Whale Watching Tours that have to adhere to very strict regulations about how close they are allowed to get to the whales ( 300metres), how many boats are allowed to gather together when whales are spotted and even how high planes must fly above them (2000ft) .

Every year Tony and I say we'd love to take a whale watching tour. Perhaps this year we'll do it!

Cheers.