Whale Watching from Surfers Paradise can be enjoyed every June to October as we depart from Cavill Avenue in the heart of Surfers Paradise to meet the Humpback Whales of Queensland. It was a beautiful day as we made our way out into the sighting grounds and were greeted with a glassy sea, swimmer crabs and Green Sea Turtles moving through the lovely conditions. Approaching our first pod for the morning we observed a very stealthy escort pod keeping a low profile and respecting their reactionary distance we moved off and wished them well for the morning ahead. It soon became apparent why they had been keeping a low profile as further ahead were three pods moving quickly as many bachelor males were travelling north. The pod was social to begin with but soon became competitive with much pushing and shoving as they sized each other up for the competition ahead.
One male pec slapped with flirtation towards the female before her original male escort launched into an enormous full body breach just off our bow. It was spectacular and sent a strong message as the challengers peeled away. A further competition pod beelined the Whale Watch 1 and came barreling towards us with speed as the female moved in circles around us to try and get ahead of the males and we were within meters of the powerful display unfolding underneath our feet. Our afternoon was also set to be just as exciting as just after departing the seaway a brand new calf surfaced with mum and began moving our way. The female lifted her calf onto her rostrum and above the surface so we were eye to eye with the calf for a few moments. It was at that point a huge male surfaced right next to them and we could now see that this bachelor was trying to impress mother whale. He continued to follow them closely as the calf practiced some breaching and head/body lunging to display dominance towards him which was adorable to watch.
The mother whale encouraged her calf by breaching herself which was simply spectacular. Eventually the male was accepted into the pod and as we wished them well we moved out to join with yet another competition pod starting up on the horizon. A few enormous breaches erupted as one of the bachelor males showed off before charging towards the others and we soon found ourselves with five enormous Humpback Whales swimming powerfully alongside the Whale Watch 1. It is always a joy to spend some time in the lives of these whales and observe their remarkable language and behaviour. It is a great time of the year to enjoy whale watching from Surfers Paradise as the intensity of the northern migration is well underway.
