An interesting fact about the whales is that the mother whale produces 6oo litres of milk a day. One calf would then go on to drink between 4-600 litres per day to fatten up its blubber before it could survive the harsh coldness of the Antartic. The milk that it produces is more like a thick toothpaste. The whales also very rarely eat here and prefer their diet of krill, plankton, herring and mackerel when they are down South in colder waters. Due to this the mother whale will lose up to 50% of her body weight from when she left Antarctica until she returns! This leaves the whales vulnerable to attack from Great white Sharks and Orca (Killer) whales that roam about the North of Fraser Island waiting for them and their calves to migrate South.
Whale watching season runs from late July to early November with sightings being guaranteed between August and the end of October and all companies provide a free return trip if no whales are spotted.
Humpbacks are described as showy acqua-acrobats and are often seen perfroming their various talents such as waving their pectoral fins, tail slapping, breaching or simply blowing.
Since we had such a good time on Fraser with the recommendation the woman at the tourist info had made we went back to speak to her. After speaking with her she advised that there are plenty of companies, but there is one in particular that stands out from the rest - (The Tasman Adventure). This is because the skipper of the boat actually owns it and isn't bothered like the other companies in how much fuel he uses completing each tour. His main priority isn't making sure you see one whale and then taking you back to shore like the other companies. Therefore if you see a whale and after a few minutes it isn't doing much he will drive away and find another pod of whales that are more interested in the boat.
It is said that whales are very curious about the boat and are often described as watching the humans rather than the humans watching them! Some of the mother whales often push their calves up to the boat almost as if they are showing it off as oppose to normal animal instincts you would assume she would place herself between the calf and the boat as a precaution.
We started the morning in good fashion as they provided a great breakfast consisting of danish pastries and tea. Both of which we hadn't had since we left Glasgow. We were headed out into the bay and it only took around 30 minutes until we were starting to spot a few whales. Here we got a good idea of exactly how big these animals are. After spotting the first whale it got easier to spot them as we were told what to watch out for. Incredibly, whales actually leave a "footprint" in the water which is very clear to see. This is created when a whale makes a dive and it thrashes its tail about under the water. This causes the water to well up to the surface forming slick spots known as whale footprints.Sometimes a series of footprints marks the path the whale is taking underwater and this is how you can track them.
We were unsure as to how many whales we would actually see and how close we would get to them as it is dependant on the whales themselves. The boats will not chase them around, you have to rely on the whale being curious enough to come and have a look at you. Luckily for us that day there was hundreds of whales about and sometimes you could look left, right and centre and see pods of whales.
It was fantastic to see the whales up so close and to see them perform some of their natural behaviour. The most common two actions that were displayed were the dive and the tail lifts. This is where the whale has decided that it wants to go deeper and heads for the bottom of the bay. As the whale is diving it lifts its tailfin out of the water and holds it for a few seconds before dissapearing. The whale can be under water from anything up to 40 minutes. Usually when a whale took a dive we would move onto the next pod to have a look at them.
Another of the most common actions that you would see was the blow.Whales are mammals just like us and breath air. When they surface from a dive, they blow the air and water in their nostrils located on the top of the head.There was a few occasions when the whale was really close that the both of us got a nice shower thanks to the whales!
Humpback whale pectoral fins or flippers generally have a considerable amount of white on the underside and can be up to 15 feet long. Sometimes a whale will float on the surface while repeatedly slapping one of the flippers on the water. This is a method of communication between the whales and is generally to let other whales know that they are there. It can also be used as an angry reaction if the whale is annoyed with another whale. We seen quite a few whales on their own and were treated to lots of performances of this.
Another popular action that whales perform is tail slapping. The whale lifts its tail out of the water and slaps the water. This behavior is usually repeated several times and we were informed that it is associated with feeding.
The most impressive of them all though is when the whale perfoms a breach. This is when the whale comes out of the water and does what looks like a back flip creating a big splash.
Again, all of these pictures and about another hundred have been uploaded to our photobucket website where you can see them in a larger scale. The link is:
http://s851.photobucket.com/albums/ab80/gncbackpacking/oz/Whale%20watching%20Hervey%20Bay/
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