21 JUNE 2025
What a fantastic winters day to be out on the Port Stephens Humpback Highway! We have blue sky, sunshine and great sea conditions off shore making for the perfect whale viewing. Even before cruising out through the headland at Shoal Bay the crew have seen blows quite near to Fingal Island, so we know at this point we are in for a great day aboard the Hinchinbrook Explorer. Sure enough as we reach closer to the Island we are greeted approximately 10 pods of Humpback Whales within close vicinity. The have heated up quite a bit for 3 or 4 of these pods with very active heat runs occurring; a heat run is described as a pod of whales generally consisting of majority males who are chasing and becoming very competitive towards a female within the pod. The males try to dominate the situation making themselves appear like the bigger male and often there is a lot of grunting or head lunging as they try and impress the female. If this wasn’t enough excitement of passengers have been treated to a magnificent display of playful whales breaching, double breaching tail slapping and more!
Not to be outdone, we have also sighted a pod of Bottlenose Dolphins off shore and an impressive Hammer Head Shark
Our afternoon cruise has spotted a pod of five Humpback Whales this afternoon, with the pod appearing to be resting and logging on the surface of the water. We can also view other pods of quiet whales, we think they are also enjoying the Port Stephens sunshine and glassy seas conditions. We have moved on towards Cabbage Tree Island, but have been surprise and amazed to look back at the pod of five whales to see there is a very new born calf with them. At this point the calf has become very playful and breaching its tiny body out of the water. Such a beautiful creature to see so early in the season. The images captured by our whale fanatic and friend Lee Matthews show just how small the calf is beside its mum and again with the small fishing dingy in the back ground.
Photo credit: Lee Matthews Photography
*some images have been cropped to show the details of the calf