Whale Time

By Danielle Chenery // 4 November 2010 // Comments: 0 // Related Categories: Things to do, Traveller blog, wild life

One winter highlight in Australia is whale watching. The winter months, from around May to July, bring mostly Humpback and Southern Right Whales, from the Antarctic, along Australia’s coastline to breed in the warmer northern waters of the Whitsunday Islands. The whales are then spotted on their journey back south from around September to November.

You can spot whales from many headlands and National Park lookouts. Migrating whales come quite close to the coast, and have been known to spend time near beaches, so if you keep a look out, it’s possible to spot these massive mammals from land.
Some (out of the many) top whale-spotting sites in New South Wales include; Manly’s North Head, Ben Buckler at Bondi Beach, Port Stephens, Jervis Bay, Eden and Byron Bay.

In Victoria, Warrnambool is a great place to spot whales. Logans Beach, which is near Warrnambool, is where female Southern Right whales can be spotted with their young, teaching them vital life skills and preparing them for their journey home. Here, the whales are known to swim within 100 metres from shore. There is a viewing platform in the sand dunes where you can watch the whales, but be prepared for windy or wet weather.

From November until April/May you can spot the less common Blue whale near Portland, from Cape Nelson, Cape Bridgewater and the Blowholes. From these vantage points, the whales can be seen within 10 kilometres of land or, in some cases, within just a few hundred metres.

The whales can be spotted feeding thanks to the ‘Bonney Upwelling’, a natural phenomenon that causes nutrients from the bottom of the ocean to rise to the surface. The phenomenon occurs along Victoria’s South West Coast, making the area one of only a few spots in the world where Blue whales can be spotted surface-feeding.

Blue whales, at 30 metres long and around 150 tonnes, are astonishingly huge and are the world’s largest animal.
Tasmania’s Bruny Island along, with other coastal areas in Tassie, are whale-spotting sites. Humpback and Southern Right whales migrate along Tasmania’s east and west coast on their way north.
Unfortunately whale spotting in Tasmania is not always a positive experience. More whale strandings occur in Tasmania than anywhere else in Australia. The Circular Head and Macquarie Harbour-Ocean Beach areas are where these strandings mainly occur. If you spot a whale in Tasmania, call the whale hotline on 0427-WHALES.

Tours
Join a whale watching tour for a closer whale watching opportunity. Tours take place on water via boat or in the air via helicopter, with water being the more affordable option.

Different species of whales may be spotted while on a whale watching tour. They include; Southern Right whales, Humpback whales, Minke whales and the massive but rare Blue whale. Dolphins and other marine delights, like seals and fairy penguins, may also be seen along the way.

Instead of following a set route, some tour vessels will only journey out to where whales have been seen, furthering your whale-spotting chances. However, as whales are wild animals, operators can’t guarantee whale sightings on your trip, instead some operators may offer to reschedule your trip. When booking, it is worth asking about company policy regarding whale sightings and about their general success rate in spotting whales.

It is also a good idea to ask about the size of the boat and how many people are on each tour, as this can affect your whale-watching enjoyment. If commentary is important to you, ask if this is offered. Also, check if food and drinks are supplied on board, or if you can take your own. If you are prone to sea-sickness, it is definitely a good idea to take sea-sickness tablets or wrist bands. Most chemists stock a range of devices and pills to help avoid sea-sickness, so they are worth a try if you struggle out at sea.

Protected Animals
There are rules and regulations in place to protect the migrating whales and to ensure they have enough ‘personal space’. This means boats need to be 100 metres away from an adult whale or 300 metres from mothers with calves. Other regulations govern the speed, approach and number of boats permitted around the whales at any one time. All these rules ensure that the whale watching experience has as little negative impact on the whales as possible.



Which Whale?
So how can you tell which type of whale you are spotting? If you are taking a whale watching tour then your guide is likely to know, but if you are on your own, there are some tell-tale differences between Humpback and Southern Right whales (the most common species).

Humpback whales arch or hump their back, when starting to dive, hence the name ‘Humpback’ whale. They also have dark grey to black bodies, with white patches on their bellies, pectoral fins and on the underside of their tail flukes. Humpback whales also have lots of barnacles on their pectoral fins and their rostrum, which is part of their head. Another giveaway is the serrated edges on their flukes and pectoral fins. You’ll see their flukes when they perform the ‘fluke-up’ dive, which is when they roll forward before diving, leaving just their tail to poke out of the water.

They are also known for ‘smacking’ the water with their pectoral fin after performing a leisurely body roll and for breaching, which is when they launch their massive bodies out of the water.
Humpbacks are regarded as one of the more energetic species of whale, making them a delight to watch. During migration male humpbacks are the ones that are known to ‘sing’, or at least make all those eerie, haunting sounds associated with a whale’s ‘song’. It is thought that the purpose of the whale’s ‘song’ is to attract a mate, and their ‘tunes’ seem to change slightly from year to year and vary between humpback populations.

Southern Right whales are also dark skinned but with white patches scattered on their throat and belly. They have round bodies, but quite a narrow tail stock and a narrow head. They also have ‘callosities’ on their head. Callosities are natural growths that look like big white lumps. Their tail flukes form a wide triangle that has a notch in the middle, and they have large wide rectangular shaped pectoral fins.

Also a Southern Right whale’s ‘blow’, is ‘V’ shaped. A ‘blow’ is the name of the vapour whales shoot into the air when breaking the surface to breath. The ‘V’ shaped ‘blow’ provides you with the first clue of a Southern Right whale’s presence.

Sadly, the Southern ‘Right’ whale got its name because it swims slowly, floats when killed and provides lots of oil and baleen, attributes which made it the ‘right’ whale to whale hunters of the past. They were so popular that by the 1840s they became almost extinct. To this day the Southern Right whale population is trying to recover.

Primary Source: NSW National Parks and Wildlife Service.