Whale Sighting - Mon 19th Jul 2010

Whales sighted off True Blue vessel Explorer this season: 324 humpback whales, 3 Southern Right, 3 minke, 220 Offshore or Oceanic Bottlenose Dolphins (Tursiops truncatus), approx 94 Bottlenose Dolphins (Tursiops aduncus), 20 Common Dolphins, 3 Australian Fur Seal. Flocks of Gannets, 22 Black Browed Albatross, and plenty of Sea Gulls. 4 Fairy Penguins.

This morning a single humpback was sighted by Explorer and her crew just off Coogee Beach then a pod of 2 followed shortly after this. They were swimming slowly along displaying some very graceful fluke up dives. One had a particularily large tail fluke.

This afternoon Explorer cruised out in good conditions with a pod of 8 being picked up just 3 miles off Coogee again. The skipper followed these until they were at the Sydney Heads with some very close encounters and pectoral fin slaps.

An exciting encounter with a rare Minke Whale was spotted heading South. An energetic Whale similar looking to a Dolphin but with a bigger tail & darker in colour.