Whale Sighting - Sat 17th Jul 2010

Whales sighted off True Blue vessel Explorer this season: 304 humpback whales, 3 Southern Right, 2 minke, 220 Offshore or Oceanic Bottlenose Dolphins (Tursiops truncatus), approx 94 Bottlenose Dolphins (Tursiops aduncus), 20 Common Dolphins, 2 Australian Fur Seal. Flocks of Gannets, 22 Black Browed Albatross, and plenty of Sea Gulls. 4 Fairy Penguins.

Today is perfect conditions for whale spotting and we have had both vessels picking up a pod of 2 very friendly humpbacks this morning just 2.5 mile East of Macquarie Lighthouse. This pair were happy to swim along beside the vessel giving the passengers a birds eye view of these massive creatures.

A pod of dolphins were also riding the bow waves for a short time. These creatures create excitement as they jump out of the water. Exp for the children big and little.

The afternoon whales were very playful with a competition pod of 8 humpbacks coming within 30 metres of the Explorer and her passengers. Some nice spy hopping, tail lobbing and lots of surface time were sighted from the vessels. The males seemed to be doing a lot of heavy breathing with lots of spouting. The second pod of 6 with the vessel Kooee also had close encounters with Head lunges and graceful fluke up dives.

A great time was had by all.