The humpback whale spotting season at Hervey Bay was one of the big things that I got excited about when I was researching our trip and was a major reason for choosing the way round Australia we’ve taken. It is not known why these huge creatures like to hang out near Hervey Bay for a few months before summering in Antartcica, but the town certainly makes the most of their winter guests. Knowing how excited we were about this, my Mum kindly offered to pay for the trip for our birthdays – woohoo! After first arriving in Hervey Bay too early for the whales and heading North to kill some time, it was now time to return. We had already decided to go on the Blue Dolphin trip as it was a nice small boat, so you are closer to the whales, that goes out for the whole day rather than just a few hours. Ruth booked us on and confirmed the conditions were good and the next day we were being taken out to Platypus Bay just off Fraser Island to do some whale spotting.
The boat was a 10 metre long catamaran and there was only about 15 of us onboard. Ruth and I went straight to the bow of the boat where I promptly setup camp on one of the nets, which were great fun. We were gradually joined by most of the other people on the boat with everyone keeping a keen eye on the water.
Jo on Blue Dolphin Yacht
Just a few hours into our trip we caught up with one of the huge power boats that went out a few hours earlier. It had stopped to view a humpback whale and we saw it swim near them. It then decided we were a lot more interesting and headed in our direction, the only problem was that it dived and so we had no idea where it went. A few minutes later a big tail appeared about four metres in front of Ruth and I on the bow, but that was just the beginning. For the next quarter of an hour or so the whale kept swimming around our boat, getting closer and closer. It was about the same length as our boat and looked like it weighed a lot more! The whale kept circling the boat, often diving under it to keep us guessing. The boat kept rocking from side to side as everyone moved to see. Quite a few times the whale surfaced about two metres away from us and because we were less than a metre out of the water it was definitely a close encounter. Several times the whale spurted out of the blow hole and even got Ruth with it. She said it smelt fishy! The whale put on an awesome display for us and it’ll be something neither of us ever forget. I still can’t believe just how close this huge creature came to us. As with so many of the things we’ve seen over here, it was just awesome. After a while another boat came by and see we allowed ourselves to drift out of the way so that the whale got a bit closer to them (the boats aren’t allowed to get close to the whales, they have to stop and let the whales come to them). After having a little something to eat and calming down from the excitement we headed off to find more whales.
It wasn’t long until we saw two more humpbacks. They didn’t want to come and play with us, but it was beautiful to watch them swim along just 30 metres or so off our port side. We then got a tip about three more humpbacks swimming together by the shore of Fraser Island and we set our course to find them. When we found them all the short trip boats had gone back and so we had them all to ourselves. These guys were in shallow water about four metres deep and were playing together.
Humpback Whale surfacing next to the yacht
It was great to see this behavior and as they were staying in the same area we were able to all have our lunch whilst watching them. All of a sudden there was a big splash and one of the whales swam off on its own. Soon after another one joined it and they came towards us. One of them swam right underneath us a couple of times whilst the other one was just metres away. The whale that was left on his own was not impressed and started thrashing about in the water. After one particularly big fin slap the two whales near us quickly turned around and swam towards the solitary one. The fin was down! After that little tantrum they all swam away together and we started to gradually sail home with big grins all over our faces. The wind had picked up a little and so Ruth and I went and had a chat to the captain in the shelter. We were lucky enough to spot a dolphin on the journey back but couldn’t see any other members of his pod.
Fin Slap
As we sailed back into the marina, we really couldn’t believe how lucky we’d been. We weren’t even sure that we’d see whales but we were treated to six! I had to look at the pics on my camera just to prove to myself that I’d seen something so amazing. It was one of the best birthday presents ever – thanks Mum!
