Whales Swim Around Us.

Wednesday morning strong winds are forecast but we leave the marina and the winds are light.

As we head out Chad Bunny, a local fisherman calls me to tell of five whales, north of Michaelmas Island, so we head in that direction.
It takes about 30 minutes to get to the islands and to start with, we can't find any blows.

We continue along the northern side of Michaelmas Island and a passenger sitting along side me on the flying-bridge spots the blows at the same time I do. We get to these whales but we can only find 2 whales not the five reported. We follow but the whales are moving with no direction.
We do see the whales lift 1/3 of their body from the water and slap their tails on the sea surface several times, but at times they are behind us, off to our port side or ahead of us several hundred metres.

The whales head out towards the eastern end of Breaksea Island and I explain to my passengers that we don't want to follow them as the wind is strengthening, making conditions very uncomfortable on the southern side of the island. We leave the whales and go visit a colony of New Zealand Fur Seals, finding a couple of Australian Sea-lions too.

We round the western end of Breaksea Island and head to Limestone Head. There has been a change in the weather and it is now raining and the wind strength I found out later, was peaking at around 44 km per hour. All the passengers have headed down stairs to take shelter and I have increased the revs so it takes us about 10 minutes to reach sheltered waters in the lee of Limestone Head.

We have seen whales breaching out deep but as I said I don't wish to put my passenger in those conditions but I don't think they have had a true whale experience yet, so hope we can find a whale in these calmer waters.

Yes we are in luck. As we head into King George Sound I look off to starboard and spot two very soft blows. We head over to find 2 small humpbacks and several dolphins and once again everyone is out side to get a good view.
The whales are not moving far I take the motors out of gear and within minutes the dolphins head towards us. I have lost sight of the whales until one surfaces right along side us, then his mate. For the next 20 minutes these whales circle the boat, at times spy-hopping, sliding back into the water and then swimming to the other side of the boat. I only have a telephoto lens on my camera and the whales are just too close, especially when one of the whales comes to the surface along side us and then rolls over on its back and lays there for several minutes.

I do love my job. 

Humpback Cow, Calf & Midwife.

Strong winds were forecast but it looks like that will be latter today.

We head out and everyone has joined me on the fly-bridge, Bernie comes over the two-way to tell me that he has seen a very quiet whale half way between a ship at anchor and Seal Rock. We will keep a lookout as we go past but we know that we have several pods cruising on the "Humpback Highway"

We are off Limestone Head when we see our first blows. We have some heading towards Bald Head from out deep, and 2 pods further east. We pick one of the eastern pods and head that way. Then I see another blow off our starboard side. Ok we will go have a look.

We find 2 adult humpbacks, we have now stopped and are waiting for them to swim past us so we can follow. They are now off our port side and we are slowly travelling towards Bald Head. Now the whales stop and cut past our stern. I see that they have some dolphins with them. This can be good as at times they will chase the dolphins and dolphins will come to the boat.

Now they are heading into King George Sound, but that is not a dolphin, I see a very small Humpback calf. The first calf I have seen this year. When I first started whale -watching we did not see Humpbacks calves. Last year we saw about 15 for the season.

I have asked those that may know why this is. And the answer I get is that we have never had so many Humpback whales since we started keeping records and numbers are increasing by about 8% per year. With increasing populations we get a increase in chances of cows falling pregnant early in the season or the chance premature berths. What ever the reason its great to see.

We follow the cow, calf and midwife. (an adult female that will accompany an pregnant cow) until they get close to the headland where they stop for a rest it seems. They stay in the same place for about 10 minutes and then forge on again.  We follow until they pass the seal cove at Bald Head and we leave them on their migration north.

We go in and check on the New Zealand Fur Seals then head back into King George Sound, I did see several blows heading in to the sound when we were travelling with the cow and calf, so we will stay alert.

We have not travelled too far before I see a disturbance and as we approach we find a juvenile humpback surrounded by about 30 Common Dolphins. We knock the engines out of gear as the dolphins head over to us and the young whale follows. It gets to about 20 metres away and then turns and swims away.  Some of the dolphins stay with us and when the whale is far enough away we engage the engines and idle away. As we increase the revs dolphins come to the bow and start to ride the bow wave.

Now we head towards Whale-world and along Goode Beach and back into the marina in time for lunch. Staying on the fly-bridge I am constantly keeping a lookout and today I see several blows half way across the Sound. We don't go to investigate this time.

Under Water Footage

We arrive at the boat knowing that the weather is closing in.

I can not raise Bernie on UHF this morning, so then called Whale-world and got hold of Peter Bell. He tells me that he saw blows out towards Michaelmas Island at about 0830 hours.

We head out around the mussel leases off Mistaken Island and head in towards Whale-world and there 600 metres ahead I spot 2 Humpbacks. They are rolling around on the surface and I see they are surrounded by Bottle-nose dolphins. We get close take the engines out of gear and its not long before the dolphins are all around us. They are followed by the whales.

The other charter boat arrives some time latter and now its started to rain. So glad we have a large cabin, large under cover aft deck and a covered fly-bridge. The winds are strengthening and the whales are not going any where so I decide to stay with these whales. The other boat leaves.

We enjoy a hot coffee with whales swimming around us. Several times the whales swim in close, at times off the bow, round the stern and underneath us. They do this several times. After about the third time I think about trying to record this on my Go-pro. I attach it to a boat hook and place it over the side of the boat. I have now checked this and although its not the best footage I have ever seen I can see with a little more work we may be able to get some great images.

When the whales have had enough we continue towards Whale-world to find 2 more whales about 1km away. This pair are cruising towards Marine Drive so we let them go and head in towards the fishing boat anchored off Goode Beach.

As we cruise along the weed line, just off the beach on our way home, we come across Brian Sell, a local fisherman catching squid. Some of our passengers would like to know where they can purchase a feed, we will give them a map back in the office.

Too Many To Count (Some passengers said)

Another great day weather wise today.

I drive around Marine Drive on my way to the boat this morning and find Bernie feeding the magpies. We spot several blows out deep.

We head out of the channel and while I'm chatting to Bernie on the radio Eve comes out to say she has seen a blow off the port side. We slow and I relay to Bernie what Eve has seen. Bernie says he thought he saw a disturbance but cant confirm a whale, but he has been looking deep most of the time. We continue towards Limestone Head. We chat about the young whale we have seen recently around Seal Rock, so we are keeping a look out.

Eve comes to the fly-bridge with my morning coffee (What happened to my muffin Eve) and I tell all of the passengers to enjoy morning tea before we find a whale. It has not been 5 minutes and passengers along side me spot a blow off in the distance.

We are about 800 metres off the head land and two whales are heading towards Bald Head. They are very quiet, taking 2 breaths and then diving for some time.
All of our passengers now know what to look for and now we are seeing whale blows popping up all over.  We head off to find some that may be more active. We go to the closest pair and they dive too.

BREACH is the cry and people are pointing towards the rocks. I saw the splash.
BREACH again but this time out deep. :)

We find another pair of whales, follow until they dive then turn and make our way east to find the next pod of whales that are heading toward the west. Three off to the starboard side but we are heading to three whales that are playing on the surface. They stop and now the 3 starboard side, are tail slapping.

BREACH in the sun. (I saw this one)

Blows north of us heading into King George Sound.
Blows out deep, blows east, blows south. Several passengers state that there are too many whales to count.

BREACH out deep. :)
BREACH. A whale has breached off to our starboard side. Now people are checking to see if they have captured it. :)
 
We head towards the 3 whales and follow them leaving them as they head around Bald Head. We go into the cove and find some New Zealand Fur Seals. Now heading East again to find some more whales. We have several pods heading our way, but some way off there is quite a disturbance on the surface. From the fly-bridge I can see whales rising out of the water some distance then falling back into the water and then continuing on there way.

We find 4 whales. As they travel west they are staying close to the surface, we can see their white bellies as they roll over under the surface.
They are crashing into each other and at times rising 1/3 out of the water then falling back in. Some times arching their backs and coming to a sudden stop, to then lift their tail and dive, just to break the surface with-in a few body lengths. They are cruising and the sound of the breaths is some thing to hear when they all break  the surface at once.

Motor drives are working over time until we leave these whales as they round Bald Head.

More whales are heading towards us from the east but its time to head back to the marina.

We spot a juvenile and slow the motors as we pass by. Then he slaps his tail on the surface and dives.
BREACH.  :)
The young whale has come clean out of the water, rolled over on its back and now crashes back to the surface to screams from our passengers who were lucky enough to see it.

Ok now we can head home via Whale-world and Goode Beach.

Juveniles.

The forecast was for better weather today than yesterday, so I should not have been surprised when I arrived at the boat to find no wind and clear blue skies.

We chat to "Bernie" on the UHF radio as we leave Princess Royal Harbour and he tells us he cant see any whales inside King George Sound at this time. We head towards Limestone Head when "Bernie" calls to say he has seen something over near the Perth Dive Site. We head in that direction and its not long before we find a young humpback whale.

These young whales we are seeing may be 2 years old and have been left on the south coast by their mothers, who will be back in the mating cycle this year. Whales mate every 3 years, with a gestation period of 9 months they will mate this year, calf next year and stay in Antarctica the following year to wean  their young. Then may be some of the 2 year olds follow mum as she heads north and she slips away at the coast when she can. Well our young whale I think has been here for 4 days, and although he has cut loose at times and put on a great show for those lucky enough to see it from whale world.

But today he was pretty quiet, so after a bit of a look we headed off to see what we could find.
We head out towards Michaelmas Island to find another young whale. This whale is also a bit uncooperative first but then starts to head toward Bald Head so we can travel along side.

The sea is calm the sky is blue and it makes watching this young whale easy as it swims just under the surface. We travel home via Whale-world, Water Bay Cove, Goode Beach and Mistaken Island and I get a bit of a rest when all the kids on board have a turn driving.

2 Humpbacks Enter Princess Royal Harbour

Clear skies and a light breeze from the north greet us when we arrive at the boat.
We head out towards Limestone Head and Helen one of our passengers thinks that she has seen a blow over towards Seal Rock. I slow the boat and within a few minutes we spot 2 blows.

With-in a few minutes of us following this pair of adult humpbacks, one throws its self out of the water backwards. The whales then continue the journey over towards Middleton Beach. At one point swimming up to the side of a ship that is at anchor in King George Sound much to the surprise of the ships crew.

Peter Bell from Whale-world phoned to let me know that he had 2 whales, just several hundred metres off whale world, that were slapping their tails on the surface.  But there was no need to leave these guys as at times they would get curious and come over to check us out.

We follow the whales until they arrive off Marine Drive and we can hear screams coming from a group of children standing at one of the lookouts. The whales cruise around not quite sure which way to go. Now quite a few people have gathered at the APEX lookout on Marine Drive. When the whales enter and then leave the channel entrance we leave and head back to the marina.

Beautiful weather and a very relaxing cruise.

Surfing Humpback

We leave the jetty with clear skies and little wind.
As we leave Princes Royal Harbour Bernie calls on the radio to say there are whales out near the islands. So we head in that direction.

I am deep in-conversation with some of the passengers who have joined me on the fly-bridge, when Eve comes up to tell me she has seen a very soft blow off to our port side some 500 metres away. We go over to investigate. This young whale is pretty quiet, we stay with it for a little while until I see several blows further out to sea.

We find 2 whales cruising towards Bald Head but they surface take one breath and then dive again. Too had to get a good look at this pair. There are two more 800 metres to the east, these guys are a bit better they are cruising towards Bald Head then take a left turn and head south.

Ok, there are more whales over towards the south eastern end of Breaksea Island, the seas are calm so we head that way. As we get closer we count 6 blows as the whales surface. Getting closer now and the whales have split into two pods. One pod swimming close to Breaksea Island in a westerly direction the other 600m further south. We cruise with these whales either side of us until they enter King George Sound. Now the two pods come back together and at times we see whales launching them self half out of the water.

The weather is getting better, its a great day to be out on the water. We stick with these whales until they are well inside port limits, we are going to be late home but no one on-board has any problems with this.

Now we are heading home and spot a large pod of common dolphins heading towards us. I slow to half speed as the dolphins reach us and start surfing at the bow. Still cruising at this speed, dolphins are now in our wake. Looking back at the dolphins I spot a small whale heading into our wake and then turning and surfing in our wake just as the dolphins were. I reduce revs and spin the wheel around to go back and have a quick look at this small whale. I think it was the whale we found right at the start of our cruise. Now this whale is surrounded by the dolphins, I wonder if this small whale is seeking company and wonder if it will find the pod of 6 that are about 1km away.