17 October 2022
Spring is in the air at Port Stephens, with beautiful blue sky days and warm sunshine in abundance!
Today was a day for Humpback calves. Hinchinbrook Explorer has spotted a mother and calf pair close to the Yaccaba headland, they were fairly quiet and perhaps resting a bit, so the vessel has cruised towards Little Island to find another three Humpback Whales with the pod consisting of a Humpback mum, calf and another female escort heading south bound. The little calf was very active displaying an array of behaviours from tail slapping, tail lobbing, pec slapping, head lunges and breaching too.Before heading for home we have stopped to see the seals on Cabbage Tree Island, and here have also located a pod of Bottlenose Dolphins.
We have also had a successful afternoon of whale watching with the crew on the Hinchinbrook Explorer finding a pod of three whales near Bondelbar Island, with another mum, calf and escort. The calf was full of energy at one point breaching its body right out of the water and pec slapping. Mum and baby have then in unison started tail slapping creating lots of white water splashing. The escort has broken away from the pod and appeared to head in a northerly direction, while the Humpback mum and her calf continued swimming south bound.