5 JULY 2025
The winter school holidays at Port Stephens are the perfect reason to book the family on a whale watch cruise, rug up the kids with jackets, scarves and hat to keep warm and jump on one of the whale watch cruises to experience the thrill of seeing and hearing the mighty Humpback Whale just meters from the boat.
The Hinchinbrook Explorer was the first vessel to head off shore and we have been successful in locating a number of pods of Humpback Whales around the Boondelbah and Little Island. We have spent time viewing the whales in their natural habitat as they made their way north bound, all whales were content and happy swimming along with a few beautiful tail dives displaying the underside of the whales fluke as they dove beneath the surface of the water. We cannot forget about the seals on Cabbage Tree Island who as expected have been basking the warm sunshine on the rocks at the base of the island.
MV Osprey has departed from the d’Albora Marina at 11am and cruised in the direct of Fingal Island, the crew have reported the sightings of multiple pods of whales in the vacinity. The highlight of this cruise has been a couple of surprise breaching whales quite close to the boat catching everyone unaware, and the dominate display of head lunging that almost appears as a lazy breach when the whale doesn’t quite have the energy to launch itself completely out of the water. Cruising back toward Nelson Bay on the return to the dock we have traversed along Jimmy’s Beach to watch a pod of the local Port Stephens Bottlenose Dolphins.
Photo credit: Lee Matthews Photograpy – images taken on 11am MV Osprey