"A Hard Day"

We are greeted by calm weather, not what was forecast, so we take advantage of the fact that the weather patten has slowed down and head out with word from Bernie that a quiet whale has been seen half way between the safe water marker and Seal Rock. We slow down well before we get to the area and chat to Bernie over the two way radio. He hasn't seen the whale for a while and i have not seen any thing, We spot whales in several ways. The blow can be seen from some distance when you know what to look for, some times on the boat a whale can be close to the horizon and we see the blow. Now its not caused from water that's inside a whales lung, as they are mammals and if they had water in their lungs they would drown, just like us.  It is caused when their warm breath hits the atmosphere, from any water that's around the blow hole being atomized and mucous that is inside the whales lungs. Some whales have a lung capacity of a small car and it seams to take a very short time for a whale to take a breath. We are told that a whale will take "cat naps" of about 20 minutes and shut down half of their brain so they know when water is covering their blow hole.

We also spot whales by a calm patch of water called the whales foot print. caused by the tali even with out the whale breaking the surface of the water. Of course when they start waving at us or breaching that makes them a little easier to see if you are looking in the right direction.
Well we could not find this lone whale so headed towards "the line". (An area between Bald Head and Breaksea Island.) As we get close to Limestone Head Bernie tells me the whale just breached behind us.
So we turn and go the the area and still no luck. We turn and head continue on our previous course. We don't see any blows so continue east until close to Breaksea Island and with strengthening north west winds I decide to travel the south side of the Island and hope to find some whales on the north eastern side of the island. You have to be kidding "no whales there" so we travel between the islands and as we get to the western end of Breaksea I see that the other whale watching boat has taken his sail down so must have a whale close by. We head over to have a look and even when I get close to the area I know that the whales is I can't see it, it is so quiet, just taking 1 breath and then traveling under the surface. Eve my deckie spots this whale eventually and our passengers get to see a young quiet humpback for the first time today. We follow him for some time getting just glimpses as he takes a breath and then vanishes  again. As we get out to Bald Head we see whales further south so we go to see if we can get a better look at these pair. Not today folks they also take 2 breaths and vanish.  More further south. Oh a breach, lets go to these ones, no sorry they also vanish. Well folks it seams that all the whales are camera shy today. It reminds me of a Van Morrison song "Day Like This" One of the hardest days whale watching I've had for a long time.
 "Think Whales Think Albany"
Master of the vessel, Paul Guest

Whales chasing Dolphins

Bernie tells me that whales are breaching off Limestone Head, so that's the direction we head when we clear the channel entrance of princess Royal Harbour. It takes us about 15to 20 minutes to get to the area and we find the young whale heading towards Bald Head. We tag a long for about 20 minutes by which time we are heading west, south of Bald Head. This whale is not spending much time on the surface and knowing that blows had been seen east of our present location we turn and head in that direction. We see whales south as we are traveling east but I don't wish to start out travels to Antarctica just yet. Its not long before we see several blows so continue to investigate. As we get closer we notice some dolphins jumping full length from the water as the whales break the surface. Common Dolphins are a little smaller than Bottle-nose Dolphins and have a very distinctive stripe down their side where they change color, unlike Bottle-nose Dolphins that go from a dark gray on their backs to light gray on their belly with a gradual change of color. Well pod of dolphins seamed to number some where around 30 including very young ones staying close to their mothers.

 We start to travel with the whales trying hard to get a count. First thoughts were about 6 whales but after cruising with them for some time 8 whales seamed to be the count. We cruise with them for some time trying hard to get pics of them throwing their tails out of the water or pics that could convey the total number of whales in the pod. Thank goodness for digital cameras.

As we travel along side this pod we count several other pods off our port side. We also see another pod west of us about 1 km from Bald Head. We could have just sat their and waited for them. 
We are now running late for out "Estimated Time of Return" submitted to local sea rescue radio operators so we leave the large pod motor to the 3 whales so we can add them to our daily count and then head for home. As we do we drop into the New Zealand seal colony that frequent the cove just north of Bald Head. Once again the cameras start firing as the seal pups slide into the water from their sleeping positions on the rocks.

14 Humpback whales counted close to the boat and possibly the same number so far away that we could not add these numbers to our daily sightings page. We log only the whales that we have got with in 400 metres from and at times we just cant get that close to all the blows that we see, as we would just never get home at night.

"Think Whales Think Albany"
Master of the vessel Paul Guest

"Winter Blues"

Well folks with strong winds forecast for today we advised prospective passengers that I did not think we would be going far. With strong winds arriving around midnight I went to sleep knowing I could sleep in a little as the storm raged out side. One of the good things about having a safe marina to protect your boat. Gone are the days of having to move the boat to another jetty in the middle of the night, to take advantage of the lull in the winds before they changed direction and the wind strengths climbed again.
So I get to do a little office work. Oh please let the weather be better tomorrow. :)
Master of the vessel Paul Guest

"Two calves in three days"

We wake to a beautiful winters day. Not what I expected with the forecast for the day and not what we are told we will wake up with tomorrow. Bernie arrives to tell me that he cant be at the lookout this morning as he will be attending a funeral for an old local well known fisherman. But he tells me that he has been watching two humpbacks that took 30 minutes to travel from just off Marine Drive to over past the Quarantine buoy. We find these whales east of the mussel lease north of Mistaken Island, traveling towards Seal Rock. We follow for a while but they are very quiet so when we get close to Seal Rock we decide to head out towards Limestone Head. On board we have a passenger whose father runs a whale watching vessel out of Hervey Bay, so when she tells me that we have more whales at 10 o'clock I head that way. As we get closer I wonder what we are seeing as things don't seam "normal". I ask Eve my deckie to bring my camera up to me at the fly bridge helm. We find a humpback laying on the surface and not moving. Then it all makes sense we see a baby take several breaths, laying close to mum. We stay for a while getting pictures of this tiny baby. Has it just been born, how old is it? I did notice that the babies dorsal fin was standing straight although very very small, this usually tells us that the calf is at least 10 days old. We leave so mum will not get stressed. seeing more whales south we head out. We find a young lone whale heading west and tag along for a little while. Then breaches about 800 metres further south. 3 more blows 600 metres south east, 2 blows east, blows several km east and breaching to the south west.
Of course humpbacks will breach once or 30 times so its a little hard to make an educated choice which pod to follow. Folks it's just pot luck some times.

"Think Whales think Albany"
Master of the vessel Paul Guest

How Many Whales?

Calm weather and sunny skies great us as we leave Princess Royal Harbour. We are told that several blows have been seen out deep on the line between Breaksea Island and Bald head. So off we go at 1800 rpm on our twin Volvo 360 hp motors. Cruising at about 15 kts, we have enough time to enjoy a coffee and then we are in the area the sightings were made. We don't see any blows close so decide to head west towards bald head as passengers on the top deck cry out their she blows !! We catch up with a young humpback, about 8-10 metres long cruising west slow. We follow for some time and as he takes a dive we turn and head east to see blows off in the distance.

Then that huge splash that tells us that the boys have started to show off. Or is it the girls feeling happy. Hey it is mating season :)
"We are often asked why the whales breach? Folks I truly believe its because they can. I have seen adults breach and new born calves follow suit. Are they communicating well may be but they seem to do it for no apparent reason with no apparent out come, and with no predictability"

As we get a little closer we count about 6 blows as the whales hit the surface. Then we see the whales heading towards us, so put the motors in to neutral, then we notice that the whales are chasing a pod of bottle nose dolphins. The dolphins bring great screams of excitement from the group of Indian passengers on board. The whales and dolphins swim around the boat, they seam to be playing a game of tag. After about 10 minutes the whales split into 2 pods some heading off to another pod coming close to see what all the commotion is all about. Whales are all around us, we count about 6 different pods within 1 km. We see a breach and head to that pod hoping it will not be a one of. As we approach the breaching stops. Then another whale breaches several hundred metres away. Now they are just teasing us. No one gets any pics of breaches but some times its just good to take it all in and put it in the memory banks. We leave and head to a colony of New Zealand fur seals. Then its off home, so how many whales did we see. Well I think some where between 18 and 20 close and more, that we just didn't worry about going to. All in all a good day.
Master of the vessel Paul Guest

Humpback Cow & Calf

As we leave Princess Royal Harbour Bernie tells us that several blows have been seen at Limestone Head. We catch up with said whales as they head around bald head. As we get closer I notice that we have found 2 adult whales and a new born calf. Research tells us that their is a good chance the second whale could be a mid-wife to the cow. We followed these whales for some time. We then turned and headed east, finding several more pods of whales heading towards us. We follow them for a while and then see blows back towards King George Sound. We find a young whale and as we follow it, it breaches close to the boat. Only one passenger caught it though as he shot 10 frames a second in the direction of the screams from excited passengers. Just goes to show how lucky you can be, if ready at all times, with that camera while on a Whale Watching Cruises.
Master of the vessel Paul Guest

Money back Guarantee

Well folks we seam to be having a normal winter here in Albany. This means we have cold fronts coming through every couple of days and that's what we seam to be having. We at Albany Ocean Adventures operate with pretty strong . We at Albany Ocean Adventures will cancel cruises if we think the conditions are bad. We want our passengers to enjoy their encounters with whales not to think i am a mad man. Unlike our opposition who believes that sea sickness is part of whale watching. I go to the doctor and take his advice I'd like to think people who don't spend their days on the southern ocean would look to me to give them some guidance about the conditions expected for the day. Now to show prospective passengers our commitment we are offering money back guarantee, if you are sea sick, on one of our cruises. Their are conditions of course and we ask people to listen to our advice for I have been seasick and would not wish it on my worst enemy.
"Think Whales Think Albany"
Master of the vessel Paul Guest

Chasing Dolphins

Calm winds greet us this morning, although stronger winds are forecast for latter today. With Bernie off doing some other things a mate Andrew Halsall went up to Marine Drive to see what he could see. The call came through, that a couple of whales were breaching out near Limestone Head and several more were seen west of Breaksea Island. We find these whales east of the safe water marker and still heading west. We travel with them as they head towards Middleton Beach where several dolphins come in to join the 2 humpbacks. We had both bottle-nose and common dolphins playing with the whales. At times the whales seamed to be trying to squat the dolphins with their tails and the dolphins seamed to be riding the wave pushed up by the whales. We spent about 90 minutes enjoying the company of the whales and dolphins.
Master of the vessel Paul Guest

Smelly humpback whale breath

Bernie Hill our spotter came down to our offices before we headed out. 2 humpbacks at the safe water marker in King George Sound, 2 humpbacks between the safe water marker and Seal Rock and more blows seen further out side on the line from Bald Head to Breaksea Island.  So off we go :)
 With in 20 minutes we have found our first whales. 2 adult humpbacks going in no particular direction. As we drift down wind they join us to the delight of all those aboard. Andrew Halsall a friends, (structured work place learning student) Angie, found the difficulty in trying to photograph whales with a sigma 150 to 500 mm when the whales are swimming under the boat. Be warned you can take a lot of whale pictures, to get that good one. But it is so much easier now with digital than in the old days of film. I remember taking 2 rolls of 36 exposure and not getting 1 photo I thought was any good. We left these whales as they headed towards Marine Drive.
Finding 2 more adults at Seal Rock we once again enjoyed close interactions as the whales came close enough to us, so that when they exhaled, they covered passengers with their smelly breath.
Be warned children thats what happens if you dont clean your teath.
Master of the vessel Paul Guest:)

Southern Right Whales

21st June would have to be the earliest I can remember that a southern right whale has mad an appearance in King George Sound. Today my phone started ringing at around 7am with a local fisherman on the line, telling me that they had been stopped in Emu Point channel, by a very quiet and large southern right whale. We investigated but could not find it, so headed south, app-on hearing reports of an unidentified whale being being seen off flat rock. A  small humpback joined us for some time. Children on board could not believe how big it was bit were even more amazed when I told them that it was just a juvenile and that humpbacks get to be twice that size and weigh up to 45 tonne. Bernie our spotter called us on the radio to inform us that the southern right had been spotted just off Marine Drive. We did find her on our return journey back to the marina. We stayed with her for about 20 minutes  and in that time she just surfaced a couple of times. We say "her " as it is my belief that the southern right whale is most likely a cow looking for a quiet bay to give berth to her bouncing baby.
 
Master of the vessel Paul Guest

"Winters Day"

The old days at the town jetty.

Well folks winter has arrived with vengeance over the past few days. With strong winds from the south west this morning I knew we would not be going any where today. Had a call from John in Gnowangerup asking if we were going any where. Tuesday to Friday look good at this stage so may be we will see them then. "Better to be on land wishing you were at sea than at sea wishing you were on land"

8.30 am I went and checked the boat in our nice new marina. It is good to know that the boat is safe no matter the conditions, no more sleepless nights wondering if the boat is OK.

Then drove around Marine Drive and had a chat to "Bernie" our spotter. Saw a couple of whales in King George Sound between rain storms. Decided it was a good day to do some office work, if there is such a day.
 
Master of the vessel Paul Guest

Whale Watching In Albany Western Australia

Breaching Humpback.

www.whales.com.au

No Cruises this weekend because of strong winds. With strong north westerly winds conditions in the western end of King George Sound are fine for whale watching, but the whales have been on the outer reaches of King George Sound, out around Breaksea and Michaelmas Islands and on a line between Breaksea Island and Bald Head. The humpback whales (Megaptera Novaeangliae) are on their annual migration north for mating and calving.
 
Master of the vessel Paul Guest