A Personal Account 2 (2000 and 2001)

Below is a personal account of my most intimate encounters with our majestic mammalian cousins. Though the time spent with them is minute in comparison to the scale of human lifespans, I am glad to say that although brief, these encounters have touched the very soul of my being and showed me the essence of life. For that I thank them. Hopefully after reading about my personal experiences, you too would be inspired and lifted up by angels....."the angel of the sea".

Surfing dolphins from Point Lookout, North Stradbroke Island 19nd of January 2000

Finally I get to see my cetecean cousins again, froliking in their oceanic realm after a lull of 1 year. This would be the definitive trip back to my adopted second home "Straddie". I came with mixed feelings as nature is unpredictable. We arrived at Point Lookout at approximately 9.50am and after having some light refreshments, proceeded to North Gorge Headlands. We were just relaxing and enjoying the breeze when they came....the big waves I mean. But the dolphins were nowhere in sight. But we have to be patient..... nature has its own agenda. Then out of nowhere, a pod of bottlenose dolphins started to ride the waves, surfing among the swells. We came armed with camera's (I just purchased a new zoom teleconverter for my camera and was gunning to try it out!) and video camera's. The surfing dolphins caught us by surprise as I rushed to get shots of the speeding dolphins. My girlfriend managed to get the camera running. We did managed to get some decent shots but we were, to say the least, unprepared. Then we had a second chance. They came surfing in again. There were not mistakes this time as I ascribed the dolphins onto film. We had good shots and good camera footage.....HOORAH! (pics will be up soon). I was not expecting any whales as this is not the season for whales. But as I said, nature has its own agenda.  I though I saw a puff against the turquoise water and a fleeting grey back. I aimed my binoculars at an area ahead of the diving whale when I saw its pointed rostrum, then its low blow and finally its grey back. It then turned on its side and I assumed that it was feeding as it swam directly at a school of fish (there were dark patches all over the ocean today with sea birds circling above). I saw it again as it surfaced, pointed rostrum first, then the blow then the round out of its grey back. I could not ascertain its species as the whale was very evasive. But from its size and behaviour (at one stage, there were two dolphins swimming alongside the whale), I assumed that it would be either a tropical Minke or a small Bryde whale (I conferred with Wally Franklin of the Oceania Project and he thinks that it might probably be a tropical Minke). We also spotted three manta's, turtles and....surprise, surprise....a shark (probably a reef shark). I though I saw some dark bodies and fins off in the distance and could not ascertain if they were dolphins or pilot whales but there was a whole pod of them. Straddie has once again worked its magic on all those who are willing to give some time to mother nature.......Straddie has once again touched me and help me connect with the vastness of the ocean.

Bottlenose dolphins from Cape Byron, 21st of January 2000

My second trip to the lighthouse at Cape Byron, Australia's most easterly point. We came hoping to see the surfing bottlenose dolphins and if possible some of the rarer whale species that shows up from time to time. Alas, one should not presume as nature is unpredictable. What we had today was sweltering weather (the peak of the heat wave happened today and we were really sweating it out and generally wilting under the sun) and a pod of lethargic dolphins just swimming around. Well, better luck next time I hope. Oh and we spotted another turtle.

2001 Whale Watch - The triumphant return

I'm back…back to where the whales and dolphins are. My first trip back to Straddie was a bogus one. Did not bother to check the weather or the viewing window for the northbound migration. Anyway, that is not going to be the topic of this paragraph. What I will endeavour to describe is my fantastic trip back to Straddie on Saturday. The weather was excellent. Not a cloud in the blue sky and the wind was nice and cool (though a little bit on the strong side, the waves today were huge!). Got there as early as I could, at about 10.20am. While walking towards the North Gorge, I immediately spotted some bottlenose dolphins off in the distance and quickly whipped out my trusty bino. I then proceeded to North Gorge and parked myself in a comfortable position. Earlier that day, the bus driver mentioned that 7 whales had been spotted, a good indicator for things to come. As I began to get comfortable, I got my first sighting just to the east of whale rock (Which, incidentally was sprouting like a whale! How ironic!). I spotted three blows in quick succession. As I pointed my bino, I could just make out two dark brown backs breaking the surface and one lying belly up with fins outstretched. They continued to blow and stay on the surface without moving while rolling around and just relaxing. Seemed like they were just taking a breather! I continued to observe them as they started to move slowly, but surely across, travelling north to their breeding grounds. Just as the three departed, I spotted another blow at roughly the same position as the last three when I first spotted them. This whale, however, swam at a steady pace northward and did not pause to take a breather. He came quite close to the headland and at one stage, was accompanied by three bottlenose dolphins, who were bowriding in his pressure wave. I noted that this humpback was more brownish than the last three I saw. It was at this time that I spotted two whales off near the horizon, along the same line of sight as this whale I was observing. The surfaced to breathe twice and I lost sight of them. I then decided to move up to higher ground's and maybe get something to eat. Having a leisurely snack, I sat on the grassy plains and watched the world go by (ah one of lifes greatest pleasures) as three pods of some 20 dolphins played in the waves (at times spy hopping, tail slapping, chasing each other at high speeds and surfing the waves). At one point, these three pods converged into a super pod (the biggest pod of bottlenose dolphins I had ever seen). I spent the rest of the day watching the dolphins frolic in the waves and as I was about to head back home, I thought I saw some white water off in the distance at the horizon. Training my trusty bino at that spot, I was immediately rewarded by the sight of three backs breaking the waves. I tried to count the number of sprouts to determine the number of whales in that pod when all of a sudden, all five of them sprouted. It was such an amazing sight, something I have always dreamed of seeing on the northbound migration. To my surprise, I spotted another pod slightly further back on the horizon, I counted the number of blows and estimated that there were another five in this pod. Just when I though that things could not possibly get any better, one of the whales in the pod breached with its back to me. Straddie has woven its magic on me once again……in the infamous words once said by "The Terminator", I will be back….my next scheduled trip is on the 17^th and 18^th of August when I will be staying at Straddie on a retreat.

The CID retreat over at North Stradbroke Island happened on the 18^th and 19^th of August. Was scheduled to depart on a Friday but got held up. We finally made our way there and got to the Moreton Island Research Station on Saturday at approximately 11am. We then headed up to Point Lookout. Not expecting much as it was already past noon when we finally got there and finished our lunch, I was just resting my eyes and looking toward the horizon just outside the toilet when I spotted my first splash. I promptly dropped the drinks and snacks and whipped out my trusty bino and, lo and behold, a whale was head lunging. He did it several more times before stopping. Not to far off from the first whale, a second one was tail slapping the water surface. This also happened several times before they finally stopped. We were quite astonished by what we had just witnessed as they are normally not this active at this time of the day. Noting the positions, we made our way to North Gorge Lookout point. We did not see much more but we did see two more whales in the water. One was actively tail swishing and tail slapping while the other swam around. My suspicion was that a male was trying to mate with a non too receptive female. This observation was confirmed by my girlfriend. There were very few bottlenose dolphins around today and they seemed to be feeding for a good part of the day. Sunday was no better than Saturday. All we saw was one whale and this seemingly lone whale seemed to be happy just doing tail extensions. As all this action was so far off in the distance, I did not even bother to take pictures. What we did see was three turtles and some jellyfish. The turtles seemed to be feeding on these creatures.

A cruise that had been in the planning for ages. Finally it happened..on the 25^th of August. I have been watching Captain Kerri's whale watch reports on Channel 7's wednesday night whale watch reports ever since 1997 and I have been impressed. Have also read several articles about how she struggled to keep her whale watching cruises going so I was really fired up from this fact, and also from the fact that I have not seen a humpie up close and personal for ages (last time was the year 1998!). There was also a certain amount of trepidation at the fact that humpies can be incredibly unpredictable. I was fully decked out this time with a polarizing filter and a 200mm telephoto lens. Would I get the shots I always longed and planned for? This day was to be recorded in history and all I can say is that Kerri really runs one swell whale watch cruise. It’s a no frills fun day out just to be with the whales (with no annoying sidetracks like live bands on board or such).

The day started out innocently enough with Kerri spotting several low blows as we were approaching Cape Moreton, the whale watching grounds. As we cruised out, I notices several unethereal forms in the water. They were the jellyfish I had seen on my earlier trip to Straddie! Anticipation was mounting and I could feel the tension and the excitement in the air as we finally came within full view of the blows. We waited for the humped backs to emerge. What we did see were slim grey forms slicing through the water. Probably Bottlenose Dolphins. There were several pods in the area and one came pretty close to the catamaran, but did not hang around long enough to be photographed. We then decided to move on. We spotted more low sprouts. Turned out to be spinner dolphins as one of them repeatedly breached (or twirled!) out of the water. The spinner was so fast that there was  no way I could get any good shots without a motorized drive. One of them even porpoised out of the water to give us a full view of his/ hers body!

We were staring to get a tad worried as we had not spotted any whales. But Kerri assured us that they had spotted whales (6 pods the previous day…non too active though) in this area, plus they should be more around as the Nothbound migration was still on and the Southbound whales were on their way back too. We then spotted several sprouts off in the distance. Training my bino at the area, I spotted three backs break the surface. Kerri told her skipper to keep a straight course and stop when they were about 100 meters from the whales. As we approached, their behaviour started to change. It was probably the faint murmuring of the water jets (Kerri's environmentally sound catamaran runs on water jets by the way!) that caught their attention since whales are such sound sensitive creatures. One even spy hopped (got that pic but a little too far off). They changed their course and began to head towards us. The cat and mouse game was on! Kerri mentioned that whales love to play cat and mouse with cruise ships. They appear to be coming towards the cat but they then vanish…only to pop up beside the hull of the ship to say hi!. And that is exactly what they did! These whales surface but meters from the cat and blowed softly. All the cameras were trained on them as they checked us out. These three whales appeared to be sub-adults…maybe even yearlings. They were very small for humpbacks. They continued to check us out (one even spy hopped a few times….I missed them all except one as I was on the wrong side. The was also a small breach out of the water and I missed that too!). There were several other whales off in the horizon and others made a bee line for the cat! It was then that I started to lose count of the number of whales. Several others also approached the cat but most of them just swam parallel to the cat in slow deliberate motions. They were all very close so I got a couple of good shots of whales diving with their flukes up.

As the afternoon wore on, we spotted yet another pod of 4 whales. These whales seemed much bigger than the ones we had seen earlier. They were swimming parallel to the cat and one went belly up and even waved at us. Kerri determined that the particular whale was a male. Managed to catch that on emulsion. Everyone was eager for a good breach as we had not really seen one today. Just as someone was talking about it, one of the bigger whales suddenly launched his 40 ton body into the air. I instinctively moved my camera up and took that fateful shot. Cool. Off in the horizon, we spotted another whale tail slapping. It was almost time to call it a day when our cat was mugged by the 4 same whales. They seemed intent on making close contact as they moved within touching distance. I took heaps of photos. Someone was just mentioning that all we need right now is a good spy hop. They granted us that and gave us two close spy hops. These whales also made every attempt to communicate as they eyeballed us (made eye contact with one of them. He seemed to be looking straight at me as his eyeball followed my movements) and blowed at us (whew…talk about oily fish breath!). Halfway through the close encounter, I finally ran out of film. Maybe it was good too as I could finally spend the time just watching them, not through the camera viewfinder, but through my very own eyes. I watched in awe as these huge graceful leviathans winged their way under the cat so gracefully. I even spotted the remora's changing positions as the whales neared the cat's hull. Ah one of life's greatest treasure is spending time with these beautiful, yet misunderstood creatures. Till we meet again!

Don't know what happened last month (planned to go down and catch the whales)….but I'm back this month!!!! We went down to Straddie last Saturday and the weather was excellent. We expected a hot, hot day at the headlands, but the weather was surprisingly windier and cooler than Brissie. Anyway, onto the whales and dolphins. The tide was very high when we arrived so if any whales decide to come close to the headlands, they could do so. However it was not to be. The winds were high and the waves were not clean at all. I predicted some surface activity since whales are known to be more active in high winds. We waited and watched for a good while, and were telling ourselves that whales are wild creatures and are therefore unpredictable. For a good part of the morning, we spent our time staring blankly into the waves. Then the dolphins came…..heaps of them. They were, estimated, two pods of some 20 to 30 dolphins. They were not surfing the waves (not clean enough) and were not very surface active but several spy hopped, swam upside down and tail slapped the surface. Its always such a joy to observe these beautiful mammals out in the wild doing what they do best. Then as I started to eat some snacks, from out of the side of my eye, a huge whale, with its belly to us launched its body out of the water. It was the closest breach I had seen from the headlands!!!! Quickly grabbing my trusty bino, I spotted a baby whale with its back to us breaching. They only did that once (no chance at all for pictures!!!! Arrggghh!!!). I continued to observe them as they swam off southwards, I wasn't too sure if it was the baby or mother that tail slapped the surface once. They also seemed to be swimming belly up as the water looked light. As the day progressed, we spotted another sprout off in the distance. Overall, not a great day for whale watching….but as they say, better than non at all…my last trip to see the whales would probably happen in two weeks time (but it will be the first week of November..oh well, hope for the best).

2002 Whale Watch - Season commences

The humpies are back and so am I.....back at my second home off Point Lookout, North Straddie. This trip was to be for the retreat but who can resist the call of the whales and the dolphins. As usual the weather was super fine. Clear blue skies, gorgeous turquoise water, light breeze...ah the perfect blue water dreaming experience. I have to constantly pinch myself to tell me that I am not in heaven. Anyway, on with the story. Got to Point Lookout at about 10.30am and immediately proceeded to my fave spot off North Gorge Lookout. This time round I had only a small pair or 10x25's and a 15x70 (mainly for stargazing). Little did I know how much I would come to appreciate my 15x70's for cetecean watching as well. There were heaps of dolphins around and there were quite a number of young ones about. In fact there were several going belly up, spy hopping and surfing the waves. The bottlenose dolphins are always so full of antics that there is rarely a boring moment when they are around. The whales however were a different story. Intent on getting to the northern reef's to mate and give birth, they did not stick around for long or show any surface activity. They were in travelling mode. I have come to the conclusion that in order to get close encounters from shore, you need to catch them on their southward migration. Nevertheless managed to catch 9 whales, all of them very far off. Caught glimpses of their backs, two tail ups and two breaches (I think as I only saw the splashes and was not fast enough to catch them in binocs). Ah well all is not lost as this is only the beginning of the season. Will be coming back to Straddie in August for yet another fantastic "whale watching" adventure...till then.

My second whale watch expedition for the year 2002. This was to be a risky trip as it rained the whole week prior to this and the weather report stated that there would be a shower or two on the horizon (and there was really two showers later on in the day!!). We woke up to a rather pleasent day. Still there were clouds floating off in the distance so there was definately a chance of a shower. We went anyway. Whilst on the fast cat we met up with an old friend, a student of ours who had worked in our previous lab back in Singapore. Talk about the world being small. Here we are in the middle of nowhere and we meet a familliar face. She had taken the day tour by Kingfisher Travel's. Anyway back to the topic. We got to Point Lookout at 10.30am and after a brief visit to the washroom off we went. Whilst walking along the track towards Norm's Seat I spotted what appeared to be a black footprint just under the surface of the water. To my astonishment there was a blow following that...and it was really close to shore...sheesh...we half ran, half walked as we hastily tried to pull out our binocs. Then one of the whales breached. I was totally unprepared and did not have my camera ready. What a wasted opportunity. I could just imagine the shot I would have got if I had my camera out and ready. Sure teaches me a lesson to always be prepared when coming on a whale watch. We then followed the whales (there were three of them) as they swam, very near to the headlands. They tail slapped a bit, went belly up and swam against the breaking waves (the seas were rather choppy due to the gale force winds). I also noted that they were rather small whales, possibly yearlings. They were really playful and porpoised out of the water as they swam against the waves. One of them even had cookie cutter shark marks on the right flank. I reckon that if my pics turn out right (took about 6-7 shots) I might just be able to identify this whale again if I do meet up again. Alas that was to be the only whales we saw that day. Oh well like they say better to have quality than quantity. The last time we saw whales this close to the headlands was back in 98! Oh and did I mention that there were also heaps of bottlenose dolphins. They were not very active today unfortunately. Next stop...a whale watch cruise with Captian Kerry...stay tuned!!!!!!!!

I was a man on a mission for this year's whale watch cruise (again with Captain Kerry Lopez of Channel 7 News fame). I had gotten some pretty good close up pics from last years cruise and was gunning for that perfect whale breach photograph. This year I was accompanied by my gf Siok Hwee, her close friend who was visiting from Singapore, Hui Min and another friend of our's, Bai Yan. This was a first for both Hui Min and Bai Yan so naturally they had a lot riding on this trip.

When we got to the Redcliff wharf I was surprised to see that Kerry had changed her cruise ship. Seemed like she had acquired the FantaSea cruise ship we had taken while we were at the Whitsunday Island's up north. I was a little bit disappointed as I had very good experiences on board last year's cruiser which had better viewing decks. Oh well as they say make the most of it. We ended up on the front deck as the open deck at the top was not really suitable.

We were cruising for quite while before encountering our first pod of four whales. This happened quite close to Cape Moreton. All were elusive and surfaced brieftly before going under again. They seemed to be avoiding the ship. When least expected one of them breached. It was one of those fantastic body twisting breaches. And it was very close to our ship. The only problem was that it all happened in a split second and non of us were prepared. To make matters worse the swells picked up and were much larger than any that I had ever encountered.

As we followed the pod we did get several good photo opportunities when they surfaces quite close to the cruise ship. These whales exhibited signs of not wanting to be close to the cruise ship as there were frequent above water grunt's and bellow's (some sounding even comical) and even some inflated head lunges. Then one of them decided to head breach (or rather highly modified head lunges as almost the whole body of the whale was thrust out of the water). This was repeated four times no less making it an excellent photo opportunity. I did get some very good pics from this.

Over the course of the day we happened upon many other pods. One of the was a mother, calf and escort pod. This pod was very unique and there was even a double breach. As usual this happpened when we were least expecting it. But Hui Min and I did manage to catch the baby in mid air. This pics were okay but far from satisfying. We also got a very, very close breach (just beside the ship) though this happened while all of us were feeling sick and we only caught the splash (only Bai Yan saw this). Alas another photo opportunity lost. There were also some whales tail and pec slapping off in the distance. When we moved in on them they stopped.

The last bit of action came when another pod approached very close to the ship. One actually dived and emerged right beside the ship. The whale was so close that I could have touched it. I then felt a loud bump (the whale must have somehow bumped the hull of the ship!!!!!!!!). Needless to say he took off at great speed. By this time everyone was more concerned with not feeling sick (although we were literally surrounded on all sides by whales). I was just contended watching them from the sides and admiring their majestic forms gliding gracefully past us. We left the whale watching spot at 2pm.

Overall a very fruitful trip filled with heaps of whales and whale antics. we even got a bonus when we got back to the wharf. There were a pod of inshore bottlenose dolphins swimming around the wharf. I got two shots in. Well till next year!!!!

Just for the record we went to Straddie on the 27th of September (supposed to be a good month for close encounters). The weather was perfect...much cooler than back in Brisbane but alas it was not a fantastic day for whales and cetecean spotting. Spotted just one whales and he/she was very elusive. All we saw was the blow (four times to be precise). Even the dolphins were nowhere to be seen though we did get some surfing action close to the end of the day from Norm's Seat. The tide was very high but the waves were very messy never allowing the dolphins to fully surf the waves. The only bonus we got was spotting heaps of turtles and manta's. Hui Min's last trip to see the beautiful inhabitant's of the deep! Oh well no loss...my final trip for the season will probably be in two weeks time and hopefully I will have more "excellent" adventures" to regale to you....see you in two weeks time.

This trip was scheduled to happen a week ago but something came up at the very last moment (i.e. felt lazy ;) Anyway I finally made the trip out last Saturday. Made a pact with myself to get up early and be there early, as I generally find that I see more in the mornings. Its was not a matter of staying there as long as possible, rather getting there as early as possible for some good view. And I was not disappointed.

Got to Point Lookout at 9am and as soon as I got to Norm's Seat on the Gorge, I spotted my first blows far off in the distance. Training my 10x25's (I was travelling light) I spotted two blows and two backs in succession. As soon as I saw those two blows, someone else exclaimed that he had spotted blows and they were pretty close. Turns out that he was right. I followed this pair of whales in the binocs and soon realized that it was a mother and calf pod. They moved very slowly and deliberately allowing us good views of their glistening backs and flukes as they traveled south. I later continued watching them from North Gorge headland's and spotted a large splash out of the corner of my eye...why do these things always happen when you least expect it???!!

While we were observing this cow-calf pairing another whale surfaced rather close to the headland. They were generally just passing through and were not very active. They were also close enough to get a good view without binocs though I did not bother to take any pics knowing that they would just look like black backs against a blue background. Five whales in half an hour...was this the promise of a wonderful day....you bet. I then proceeded to my fave chill out spot at North Gorge Headland's and spent some quality time with my old friends the bottlenose dolphins. I have not seen much of them on two of my previous visits here this season, but this time was different. They were everywhere and in their element jumping, surfing the waves, interacting with surfer's (sheesh I wish I was there on the water), tail slapping and generally milling around (and very close to the headlands to boot....got some pretty good shots that I will be posting shortly). While watching the dolphins I spotted a blow very far off on the horizon...my sixth whale for the day.

My final encounter with these beautiful mammal's came, ironically from Norm's Seat again. Spotted another cow-calf pair moving very slowly through the channel created by the rocks. The mother seemed to be just drifting on the surface and blowing occasionally. And all this while the baby was diving and surfacing to take breath's. It seemed like she was nursing her baby!!!! I have only seen this activity once before in Hervey Bay back in 1998. It was then that I decided to call it a day. On the whole I was very, very satisfied. I had spotted 8 whales during my 3 hour plus stint at Point Lookout, plus heaps of very active bottlenose dolphins, two manta ray's and a lone turtle. Is this what you call marine paradise???!!! I like to think so. Its time once again to bid farewell to my marine friends....but I will be back next year just like they will. Till then...

2003 Whale Watch - Of the white whale and mothers and babies galore!!!!

Straddie in September 2003

This was more of a show around as we had some Thai (Pan, John, Job, Jan and grandma and Keng) collegues who were here for the first time and wanted to see the island. I always try to bring visitors out here to demonstrate how naturally beautiful Australia is and how easy it is for us to "visit" our cetecean cousins. They were not to be disappointed. The usual bottlenose dolphins were there and were in their element, showing off by riding the surf. They were the stars today! Not that many whale spottings this time round. Just two from the restaurant on Point Lookout. They were very close in but did not display any surface activity. They hung around for a while blowing and swimming slowly south! Oh well I still have my annual whale watch cruise coming up next month!

Whale Cruise 2003 with Moreton Bay Whale Watching , October, 2003

This was to be my big whale watch adventure this year. Did not manage to get out much this year as I got the chicken pox in July and then there was the trips to Sydney and Melbourne for the Genetics Congress. Anyway, we had a big crew this year (almost as many as last year!!) and expectations were running high (they had just spotted Migaloo (or Lotus), the white whale yesterday...will we get lucky too???). Kerry had a nice new catamaran with a big open deck. Excellent platform from which to see and photograph the whales! Anyway this year I had Soh Hong, Masaaki Taniguchi and Jason Rice on board. All first timers on an expedition of a lifetime. The weather was glorious this time and we did not have to travel very far out to see the whales. The way out was pretty choppy, but nothing compared to last years stomach churning experience. We did have fun playing balance on the open deck though :) Its October and the mothers and their babies are slowly heading back to the cooler waters of the Antartic. Full steam ahead!!!!

Our first sighting did not happen very far from our departure point. That goes to show how close Moreton Island is to the mainland. The mother and calf pod swam around lazily but there was not much surface activity. They also tended to stay down for long periods and looked like they did not want to interact with the ship. Its times like that that we have to keep our distance and leave them to their own devices. We got some pretty close up views of them underwater and blowing as they swam behind the ship. We stayed with this pair for a while before finding another pod of whales.

The next pod was another mother and calf pod. This was going to be what we would encounter for the rest of the day. They were all in very shallow water and you could almost see the sandy bottom. A stark difference to the usual whale activity I was seeing earlier in the season and in deeper water. But the sheer number of mother and calves pods in the bay was astonishing. Whales everywhere you looked. This must bode well for the future of the Australian Humpback Whales!

Then the crew of the ship spotted some vigourous surface activity far off (closer to the cape). It seemed like there were two whales that were repeatedly breaching. I spotted them through my 10x25 binocs. Off we headed in their direction. When we got there, there were at least three whales interacting. One would breach and then the other. then there were tail slaps, pec slaps, etc. Wow talk about activity. We even got a couple of double breaches by and mother and calf pod (too fast for my camera though!). I got a couple of good shots in of the repeatedly breaching whale. When they do this, our job as photographers becaomes a whole lot easier!!!

And that was all of the whale action we got this year. No ship mugging these year but plenty of mother and calves pods in very shalow water and those repeat breaches. Wow it muct take some pretty amazing strength and agility to propel their huge bodies out of the water. And did I mention that we saw many dolphins this year. Some were even riding in the jetstream of the ship. Well till next year!!!!

Breakfree Beachcomber Resort, Surfer's Paradise, 18th of July 2004

My first whale sighting of the season and from the Surfers Paradise on Gold Coast at that. We were there for a night and two days just to relax as the wifey wanted a break from thesis writing. And what a way to end the short holiday. Spotted 6 humpback whales from the 18th story balcony of Breakfree Resort's Beachcomber on a Sunday morning from 9am-10am. 2 of the whales were a mother and calf pod and they hung around for a while. Through my now official whale watch binoculars ;)10x50's, I watched as the mother and calf breached a couple of times. Lost count as the baby breached a couple more times. Looking forward to a great whale watching season".

Straddie, 28th of August 2004

Second whale watch expedition this year. This trip was an introduction to the "Straddie" experience to the wifey's sister and her bf (Siok Kian and Yu Jin) who was visiting us from Perth and also to two of our other close friends Caleb and Janice. The weather was gorgeous in the morning so the day was bound to be excellent. And Straddie delivered yet again. Heaps of whales, dolphins, a turtle of two and sharks having a feeding frenzy (yeah sharks having a feeding frenzy....we could not ID the shark species though but they were of the smaller variety). Yup as soon as we got there and were walking towards North Gorge, I spotted two whales to the right. We watched them blow and disappear. As soon as that happened, I spotted one more whale lagging behind. This whale too was blowing and exhibited a fluke up dive. Throughout the day we spotted a total of 9 whales, two of which came rather close to the headlands but unfortunately did not come extremely close. Our guess was that the heaps of recreational boaters out on the water was affecting the whales. Of these, a pod of three in the distance breached and tail slapped several times. Pity they were so far away. Best views were in my trusty 10x50's. The dolphins were also very playful and came rather close. Some of them porpoised out of the water and some tail slapped. Overall another superb day at Straddie (and did I mention the shell with the sea slug Caleb and I found on the beach...cool). Next report will be of my whale watch cruise 2004 which would be mid to late September.".

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