Today we ventured across Moreton Bay to try to spot some Humpback Whales on their annual migration north. The best time to go whale watching when they travel via Moreton Bay is between June - October. In winter they cruise past north to breed and have their calves. They then cruise back south during spring, back to their feeding grounds. They are amazing to watch leaping, breaching, tail & fin slapping, which is said to be a way they communicate with other whales.
Today we start our adventure from the Bongaree boat ramp on Bribie Island. It takes us approximately 40 minutes to arrive in the waters of Cape Moreton, in our 5.2m/130hp centre console boat "Summer Tydes".
The weather conditions were great today (seas under 1m / winds under 10kn) which is important when crossing the bay - it can get wild and it's wise to plan carefully. We use weather apps for our planning - Seabreeze and the BOM. You can view live readings for Cape Moreton which is handy.
Shortly after arriving we spot our first whale of the day, the whale watching experience never gets old! We saw lots of tail slapping today and some breaching way in the distance. We were lucky to see a few different whales and some very close to the boat - which is rather unnerving when they swim down and you can no longer see them!
There are rules - you cannot approach within 100m of a whale, however if they come towards you - you should either turn your engine off or back away at no more than 6 knots (no wake) within a 300m 'caution zone'. You should also not approach the caution zone if there are already 3 boats in the area. These rules are in place to protect our marine life so we don't disturb them, so they can live naturally and so we are able to watch them safely.
After a great morning whale watching we drive to the western side of Moreton Island to pull up for lunch and a swim before heading home. The water here is calm and protected - safe for anchoring the boat. We also saw turtles and dolphins - one dolphin we saw "tail walking" something we'd never seen before and wondered if he had escaped seaworld! Head over to our YouTube channel to check out our footage of the day.
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