10th June 2011

Two posts ago we asked the question “Want to go Whale Watching this weekend?” and some lucky people chose to come out for a sail on Imagine…

‘The Humpback Whale traffic is steadily growing on the whale highway off Port Stephens and some of the most spectacular things for these huge animals to do is Breach or Spy-hop.

Breaching is when the whale flicks its tail three times and can launch itself completely out of the water, this is no small effort for an animal that can weigh up to 60 tons.  Spy – hopping is a term used to describe when a whale sits vertically in the water and raises (hops) its head out of the water to have a look around (spying).

… So, back to last weekend and why were our passengers so lucky? Well as you can see, these photos from both Whale Watch cruises on Sunday 5th June 2011 speak for themselves!

Passengers got the double treat of awesome whales and the benifit of having crew member Didj Hopkins onboard, camera at the ready to snap these great photos!

9th June 2011

NBN News gave the 2011 official opening of the Port Stephens Whale Watch Season some great coverage. The cameraman and everyone onboard were treated to some excellent breaching by a huge Humpback Whale. To see the video please click on the NBN banner to the right.

This years official opening was themed ‘Youth for Whales’ and Imagine was glad to welcome onboard 10 local high school students as well as National Parks ranger Leanne Ellis who got to be a part of this very special cruise.

Were you a part of the official opening..? Local resident John Longworth has put together this nice compilation video (below) of the days events!

Friday 3rd June

Passengers and crew of two of the ports whale watch vessels “Imagine” and “Spirit” witnessed a sad whale watchintg event in nature yesterday. A small humpback calf clearly seperated for some time from its mother was labouring along past the entrance of  Port Stephens at 11am.

Barely able to swim and struggling even to raise its head for a breath, the barnacle encrusted calf appeared near the end. Both skippers of Spirit and Imagine spoke with National Parks and Wildlife Service Manager Mick Murphy about the possibility of its stranding somewhere along the NSW coast in the next few days.

It is generally understood that a Humpback calf requires its mothers milk for a full year if it is to survive. Whatever the reason for this calf’s seperation, it will die within days unless by some miracle it is adopted by a lactating female that has lost her calf.

This incident is of a different nature to the strading of sick Humpback Whales recently on the Western Australian coastline.

Later in the cruise two healthy Juvenille Humpbacks were sighted going north and an amazing feeding frenzy involving hundreds of Common dolphin and thousands of Gannets massing to feed on bait fish.