Heavy rains bring early end to Whale Watching Season

September saw the south west of Australia endure some stormy weather for more days than I can remember. With strong winds and heavy rain we lost a total of 14 days cruising for the month. With the rain came very dirty water entering King George Sound from Oyster Harbour. Southern Rights don't seem to like fresh water.

Before the rain started we had up to 15 whales just off marine drive and as the fresh water made its way into the sound every day the whales slowly moved back towards Nanarup Beach. After several weeks of weather the bar broke at Nanarup and no doubt they didn't like the dirty water that was there either.

It was a little disappointing as we were in line for a big year and expecting upwards of 36 whales in the bay for several weeks. Oh well, now we just have to look forward to next year.

Strong numbers still being seen.

Whale sightings have fluctuated over the past week or two with up to 20 whales spotted on a calm day and at other times because of strong winds restricting the area of operation, numbers have been as low as 5 whales on a cruise. Still good whale watching when they put on a show like captured below for those willing to brave the conditions.

That said we still use a bit of common sense as to weather conditions that we will travel in.

 

Its not every day we see the whales with their mouth open.

Sometimes its more than the whales.

Over the past weeks the up to 30 Southern Rights Whales have been enjoying some time in the western half of King George Sound.

 But some times its not all about the whales we see, although today we did have the pleasure of a humpback calf breaching just metres from our bow. We also had the pleasure of joining the sail training vessel "Lord Nelson" cruise into Princess Royal Harbour. Its a shame the public could not get a closer look as the vessel is along side the wharf.

A Southern Right cow and calf in King George Sound yesterday. You will note the growths around its head. We have sent these images to Doug Coughran and he has forwarded to US for their opinion. I look forward to the replies we get. Southern Rights are now starting to move around the coast with up to 8 Southern Rights being seen on one cruise.

A few pic's I got today. Finding whales every day.

Heaps of Humpbacks

Sorry Folks
I have been a bit slack at keeping the blog page up to date.
We have found whales every cruise which is expected at this time of year.

Today with strong NW winds we travelled out through the centre of King George Sound and found a lone whale heading north toward a ship that is at anchor, but we did not stop for a look as we could see blows a little further out to sea.

We continue and find a humpback cow and a very young calf.  We are told that if the dorsal fin is still bent over then the baby is less than 10 days old.

We stay with these whales enjoying morning tea. While we are watching mum and baby I see blows over towards Herald Reef and the blows are low so I think there may be some Southern Rights heading towards Nanarup Beach.

As we head in that direction we come across the lone whale we saw earlier, we follow for a little while then continue on, to confirm if these whales a couple of km away are in fact are Southern Rights.

As we get closer it becomes apparent that we have found 6 humpbacks charging around, not quite sure which way they are supposed to be going. We stay with these guys as the gods are shining on us today. I was worried about the strong winds forecast and we have found whales in sheltered waters.
We are about 45 minutes from home so we head in that direction at about 1130 hours. We head over to the coast and I get some help from all the children  and "Harry Hamster" on board to bring us home before the storm reaches Albany.