Whales in the Bay
We didn’t have to go far today, we spotted our first humpback whales right off Tangalooma Resort! It was a mother and calf pair and they were resting. The humpback whales tend to travel along the outside or ocean-side of Moreton Island which is why we usually have to make our way out to the northern end of the island to meet them as they come past. But during the last stage of the season, in September and October, we do sometimes encounter them inside Moreton Bay. Mostly it tends to be mothers with young calves that we see in the bay. They use these sheltered waters as a resting area.
When female humpback whales give birth, it is quite a strain on them! The mother has to travel 8,000 km north from Antarctica to the warm waters of the tropics, where she gives birth to a 1-tonne-baby. Then that baby drinks over 200 litres of milk from her every day! And the mother still has to travel another 8,000 km back south before she starts eating again (they do all their feeding in the Southern Ocean around Antarctica, they don’t eat at all during migration or breeding!). It has been found that females that go through a breeding cycle actually lose about one third of their own body weight during that season!! So as you can imagine, they need a lot of rest stops along the way back south and they use sheltered bays like Moreton Bay for this purpose.
This mother today certainly seemed to be fast asleep! So we left them in peace and headed north, only to come across another mother-calf pair plus another adult just south of Bulwer, still inside the bay! These three were a bit more active and actually came straight to our bow, where the big adult lifted its head right up out of the water and had a good look at us! You could see the large eyes above the surface, looking at you! These kinds of encounters still give me goose bumps, when the whales are obviously as interested in us as we are in them!