Humpback whales begin their journey north.
New South Wales, Austriala (ABC News)
Whales were spotted off Cape Byron in northern New South Wales just over a week ago. Whale researcher Wally Franklin says the humpbacks will head past Fraser Island, in south-east Queensland, in the next week.
He says the population has slowly increased since whaling ended almost 50 years ago.
“They’re up to about 10,000 now in number but to put that in perspective recent modelling clearly shows that the size of this group prior to that last period of whaling was somewhere between 40,000 and 60,000 humpback whales, so they still have a very long way to go,” he said.
“Because of the increased numbers the flow’s just steady. Once it starts you just get a steady flow northbound during later May, June and July and then of course in late July they begin coming into Hervey Bay heading south and they keep moving south during August, September and October, so it’s very steady stream of whales once the flow begins.”
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Whale watching in Hervey Bay Qld Australia has been fantastic this year! The operators have been able to take people up close and personal to see the whales in the wild! Hervey Bay has been full of whales at play.