The World of Whales

Whale Watching

Whale watching is one of the world's great natural experiences. A whale watching experience can only be described as an undeniably magical moment you really feel privileged to experience. Their sheer size and awe-inspiring beauty of quiet, seemingly harsh environment, they meet and where they live, specific senses I'm sure arouses particular interest.

Whale watching is the practice of observing whales in their natural environment. There’s alot of whale facts to gather from this exercise and is primarily a commercial operation, but it can always try your luck watching from the shore.

During the period from July to early November, down calm waters of Hervey Bay, Queensland, Australia, Fraser Island, which is a World Heritage Site is home to the magnificent humpback whales as they feed and raise their young before their whale migration back to Antarctica. Since the early 1980s, people have traveled from around the world to see these amazing creatures in their natural environment. This area offers reliable viewing conditions for southern humpback whales.

Hervey Bay is a rapidly growing coastal city that is known as the whale watching capital of the world.

There are a number of site you can see whales in Australia. Cape Naturalist, Western Australia, southeast Indian Ocean. Cape Leeuwin, Western Australia, where the Southern Ocean meets Indian Ocean. In eastern Australia, Logan Beach, Warrnambool, Victoria, a very popular website and the waters off Port Fairy and Portland. Whale watching occurs in many places up and down the Pacific Ocean (East Coast of Australia). From pillows you often seen them do their migration south. Sometimes whales also make it to Sydney Harbor. On the east coast, you will be able to see whales from May to November.

Tips for Whale Watching

Take a good pair of binoculars
Choose clear, calm days
Select a prominent headland or visit an area in your boat where whales have been reported previously
Look for the blow of a whale (that is the cloud of spray or mist that appears as the air is exhaled through the blowhole). This is usually how whales are first seen.
If in your boat avoid sudden or repeated changes in speed or direction
If you decide to stop allow your motor to idle for at least one minute before turning it off.
No more than three vessels should attempt to watch a whale or group of whales at one time.
Do not approach mothers with young calves. Move away slowly at idle, 'no wake' speed to at least 300 metres from closest whale

Humpback Whales

Humpback whales, also known as Megaptera novaeangliae, are a part of the baleen whale family. The name humpback describes the motion it makes as it arches its back out of the water in preparation for a dive. Their scientific name comes from the Greek word ‘mega' meaning ‘great' and ‘pteron' meaning ‘a wing'. The Humpback whale is the fifth largest of the great whales.

The humpback whales have a unique body shape, with unusually long pectoral fins and a broad rounded head. It weighs up to 45,000 kg. It is an energetic animals, often criminal and water cans. Men produce a complex whale song, which can take ten to twenty minutes and repeated for hours at a time. The purpose of the song is not yet clear, although it seems to have a role in mating.

Humpback Whales migrate up to 25,000 kilometres each year. Humpbacks Whales feed only in summer, in Antarctic waters, and migrate to tropical waters to mate or give birth in the winter. During the winter, humpbacks fast and live off their fat reserves. Their diet consists mostly of krill and small fish. Humpbacks have a diverse range of feeding methods.

The Humpback Whale is a slow swimmer at 8 kilometres per hour, but is capable of quick bursts of speed, they average 1.6 kilometres per hour during migration. They travel in groups known as pods.

The Humpback Whale has been a protected species since 1966.

From late September to late November each year, Humpback Whales make their annual migration southwards along the east coast of Australia from September to November each year. The Whales are headed back down to Antarctica after having spent several months in the warmer waters of Northern Queensland, Australia mating or giving birth.

Whale Songs

Humpback whales are the noisiest and most creative whales when it comes to songs. They have long, varied, complex and beautiful songs that include recognizable sequences of beeps, grunts and other sounds. Whale songs have the largest range of frequencies used by whales. Only males have been recorded singing. They sing complex songs only in warm waters, perhaps used for mating purposes. The cold water makes the coarser sound, scratches and groans, perhaps used for locating large masses of krill.

Now the sound recordings of whale sounds have become more possible with the development of the necessary technology, they are used as a method monitoring whales. The main result of the sound tracking are the echolocation-type clicks, so well known and documented for the toothed whales, don't exist in the Baleen Whale (Humpback Whale) although there is speculation that certain animated signals for several species have a less elaborate, echolocation function.

Typical humpback songs which can include a distinct sequence of different sounds moans, groans, roars and sighs to high pitched squeaks and chirps. Songs are made up of two to nine separate themes; the whale sings them in specific order changing for periods from ten to twenty minutes and can last for hours. These are often repeated in the entire sequence with the content changing slightly each year with each population's sounds being distinct.

Humpback whales are one of the most exuberant of all whale species, and are celebrated for their energetic antics and haunting 'songs'.

During migration, male humpback whales often 'sing' complex, prolonged and distinguishing songs to communicate their presence to females in the pod to entice them to mate. They use syllables and rhyming phrases with a complex sequence of clicks, moans and eerie high-pitched wails that can last for a few moments or an hour. The sounds range from canary-like chirps to deep rumbling sounds that carry for hundreds of kilometres. The 'songs' change subtly each year and different humpback populations have different songs.

A Humpback Whale sings the longest, most complex songs in the animal kingdom.