A Whale of a TimeSeptember 15, 2011
The Whitsundays region stages whale births every winter… and this year is no exception.
A humpback whale calf was recently born off the shores of Hayman.
I went down to the Hayman Marina to watch the action. The mother humpback was less than a hundred metres away.
Every few minutes the whale would breech to come up for air before returning to a vertical position, with her tail poking up through the water.
The whale was leaning up against the side of the reef surrounding Hayman to support herself.
It’s well and truly whale-watching season here and the Hayman Marina staff are no strangers to seeing whales around.
“At the moment it seems like every time we go out on a boat, we see a whale – often with a calf,” says Hayman’s Watersports Coordinator Sam Gibian.
Whales spend the summer months in polar waters and then migrate up to 25,000km to spend the winter in the tropics to mate and give birth.
“It’s really fascinating seeing whales in their natural habitat,” she says, “and watching the interaction between the mother and calf is something really special.”
For more information on whales and whale watching on Hayman, please click here.
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