Sunny skies, a gentle swell and three playful humpbacks greeted the official start of the whale watching season this past weekend.
Tweed-based whale watchers, Carol and Tony Hunt from Coolangatta Whale Watch, held their record for spotting whales on every outing for the past five years on their first cruise of the season on Sunday, May 29. Within 10 minutes of clearing the Tweed bar, eagle-eyed Tony had spotted a pod of three large adult humpbacks heading north along the
Tweed Coast.
Their boatload of 25 passengers spent an hour and a half watching the group splashing around and interacting, exhibiting typical whale behaviour with tail lobs and fin slaps.
“The first whale groups to leave the Antarctic each winter are usually the juveniles,” said Carol. “They’re heading north to mate so the young males, particularly, are full of testosterone and ready to play.
“They always get the season off to a great start with plenty of breaching, fin slapping and other behaviours as they try to get the females’ attention – all of which makes the early weeks of the season a great time to head out whale watching.”
The Tweed has one of Australia’s longest whale watching seasons due to its location midway along the migratory path.
“It’s a staged process, with the juveniles leaving first, then the cows and their calves from last year, then the males and females looking to mate; and last but not least, the pregnant females who stay longer in the Antarctic to build up their reserves for the long journey to the warmer waters of the Whitsundays,” said Carol.
“Here on the Tweed, we’re still seeing the last groups travelling north when the earlier ones start returning south, so we’ve got whales either coming or going every day for the full five months of the migration.”
The Tweed’s proximity to Australia’s most easterly point also means that the whales travel close to shore and are relatively easy to access before they head further out to sea to get around Stradbroke Island.
“One of the advantages of operating on the Tweed is that we’re governed by the NSW whale watching laws,” said Carol.
“In Queensland, there is an exclusion zone which means that the Queensland operators can’t stop to watch the whales until they are at least three nautical miles from shore.
“We don’t have an exclusion zone here in NSW so we can start whale watching as soon as we clear the river mouth.”
And there are usually plenty around to watch. Last season’s east coast humpback population topped an estimated 14,000 and is increasing at a rate of 10 to 11 per cent each year.
Out of that crowd, however, there are two special visitors that Coolangatta Whale Watch is particularly hoping to see this year.
“We’re expecting Migaloo to come past the Tweed around the third week of June – somewhere between June 15 and 20,”
said Carol.
“We’ve seen him twice now and, in 2009, spent an hour and a half watching him playing just off the Tweed Coast.
“Last year, a second white whale – Baloo – was spotted for the first time. He has a distinctive black mark on his tail and we’re hoping to see him come through again not long after Migaloo.”
With Carol and Tony’s Coolangatta Whale Watch tours notching up close to 4000 passengers between May and November last year, whale watching has the potential to become a major tourist drawcard for the Tweed.
“The increase in the number of Gold Coast-based whale watching operators indicates the growing popularity of this as a tourism experience for our region,” said Destination Tweed CEO, Phil Villiers.
“As the Tweed’s only whale watching company, Coolangatta Whale Watch offers a much more personalised, boutique experience on a family-owned and operated vessel catering to smaller numbers so that everyone has a clear view of the whales.
“Once again this season, Destination Tweed will be working closely with Carol and Tony to spread the word that the Tweed is the best place along the east coast to see one of the world’s most spectacular animal migrations and we especially want to encourage local residents to add it to their list of activities when they’re entertaining visiting friends and relatives.”
