Whales make surprise early visit to Coast waters

The magnificent spectacle of a 36,000kg humpback whale breaching and slapping the ocean as it frolics its way up the eastern seaboard is one of the unrivalled joys of a Sunshine Coast winter.

Three weeks ago, our most welcome visitors began their annual migration just a tad earlier than usual.

Pods have already been spotted off the Sunshine Coast.

Skipper of Steve Irwin’s Whale One, Alan “Shorty” Short, said the Sunshine Coast was one of Australia’s best places to watch whales because it had the longest season, from now until November.

The whales follow the currents and tend to stay a little further out to sea as they head north to the Whitsundays.

They come closer to shore on the return journey.

“Hervey Bay doesn’t get migration until late July and August.

“But, for us, now we’re whale watching off the Sunshine Coast and we get north and south migrations.

“We’re extremely lucky we get all of them,” he said.

“From land you can see them from Point Arkwright and Point Cartwright and really anywhere.

“The whales come via Cape Moreton and run a beeline towards Noosa and towards the northern end of the Coast as they get closer.”

He said in August, September and October the mother whales took their calves very close to shore to protect them from great white sharks and killer whales.

“Mum uses the shallow water as a buffer so even on the rock wall at Mooloolaba you can see them a couple of hundred metres away,” he said.

This is the second year Whale One has operated tours and Shorty is looking forward to finding the elusive pod of killer whales that swim past seven nautical miles offshore in the first or second week in September.

And, of course, he looks forward to getting a glimpse of the famous Migaloo and a second, younger white whale spotted off Brisbane in 2005 that is rumoured to be Migaloo’s relative.

He said after 16 years of whale watching, the mammals still did not cease to take his breath away.

“I can’t wait already. For me I love the joy on people’s faces because every day is different,” he said.

“Who is watching who?

“The teenagers generally don’t do as they’re told and they are so unpredictable.

“They can stay with you for two or three hours.”

The number of humpbacks due past our shores this year is about 10,000.

In the 1950s that number was 40,000 but decades of whaling reduced the population to as little as 600.

It is thought to be growing at 11% every year, thanks to anti-whaling action.

The whales off the Coast now are most likely pregnant cows. The tours begin next weekend.