Posts Tagged ‘whale watchgold coast australia’

You have found the best whale watching on the Gold Coast here with Getaway Sailing on the Gold Coast. We specialise in private sailing charters with the humpbacks. The maximum number of guests per charter is 8 and we only do private charters, so no mixed group bookings, only your family and friends on board. The cost is $125 per person which is only $25 more than the other big whale watching boats. But here you have your very own skippered private yacht sailing with the humpbacks. I

Close to the end of June 2015 and we have soooooooo many whales traveling north on their annual migration. Humpback whales are cruising past the Gold Coast on their journey to the warmer waters of Queensland for the breeding and birthing grounds of the Great Barrier Reef. Some of these whales will travel as far as Fiji and Tonga for their annual pilgrimage to find a mate. This image was taken in the crystal clear waters of Tonga.

On the Gold Coast we are treated to humpback whales from the end

Mid whale watching season 2014 Getaway Sailing and the New Zealand Herald spent some time together with the Humpback whales on the ocean in front of Surfers Paradise on the Gold Coast. Anne Gibson was our guest and the Humpbacks did not disappoint. We were treated to a spectacular show of breaching, pectoral slapping with a mother and calf. The following story is written by Anne of her time spent on “Eau De Vie” with the whales.

In the fourth story in a series on Queensland, Anne Gibson keeps her eyes

Last Sunday we were treated to an amazing event! Whilst sailing home from a whale watching tour we came across a humpback whale calf feeding on Coral spawn. The coral spawn trail was about 7 NM east of the Gold Coast Seaway, around 300 meters across and at least 1NM long.

 Coral Spawn Drifting with the wind 7 NM ENE of the Gold Coast Seaway

The humpback whale calf was born this season along the Queensland coast line and was traveling with it’s mother (known as the cow)

After many seasons of photographing majestic Humpbacks on Gold Coast Whales Watching tours I find myself using very similar settings each trip on my Nikon D700 DSLR. When it comes to which lens to choose it must be at least a 200mm, 300 or 400 mm can help even more as long as the ocean is calm the day you are out there. Maritime law tells us we must stay at least 100 meters away from the whales at all times where possible so this is why we need a

Whales have been increasing in number off the the NSW North coast. Byron Bay is one of the best places to view humpback whales from land. The headland with the light house is the eastern most point of Australia and is a cliff face high above the waters edge.This gives us the closest possible land based platform to view these majestic animals. A recent dive boat heading out to Julian Rock was fortunate to come across humpbacks heading north and they took these photos. For the full story

Whales have been spotted off the Gold Coast to start the 2013 Humpback migration. Locals and visitors have been sighting whales from their highrise apartments for the last 10 days. The frequency of whale sightings is increasing daily as the pods of humpbacks start to cruise past our beaches for the 2013 Gold Coast Whale Watching Season. We are in a fortunate geological position where these majestic creatures pass our door for the next 6 months either heading north at the start of the season or heading south from around

Gold Coast Whale Watching Season

better than ever this year!!

No 3 NM limit any more

The Queensland state government has changed the whale watching regulations which banned commercial whale watching tour operators from stopping and viewing whales within 3 nm of the main land. The first 3 NM of ocean along our coastline is the Queensland state Government’s domain. The federal government looks after the ocean from 3 – 200nm. The new legislation allows commercial operators to stop and watch these massive mammals whilst en route to the

Scientists suggest that humpback whales sleep with half of their brain still active. They are said to be “logged” or “logging” whilst sleeping at the surface. This is because as they rest they resemble a log floating. I personal have witnessed humpbacks sleeping, the mother was in an inverted vertical position, and stayed this way for more than 25 minutes as her newborn calf swam around close by, never wandering further than 10 meters away. This whale did not move even with the noise of the 2 stroke out board

There are many land based whale watching sites located along the coast line of Australia. During the winter migration Humpback whales travel close to shore making it easy to sight whales from land. It is best done with a pair of binoculars or monoscope. Cameras with high powered telephoto lens are able to take wonderful images from land as well.

Spotting Whales From Land

Humpback Whale Blow

 Tips and Best Position for Land Based 

WHALE WATCHING

When searching the ocean for a whale passing it is best done on