North Australian FISH FINDER forums

Probably not so relevant to you guys in the Territory but thought you may enjoy the pics none-the-less

I could not pass up the opportunity to share some of these awesome photos of the whales breaching and frolicking a short distance from Mackay harbour last weekend. There are 2 main reasons for this and the first one is because I think these pics are amazing and would be of interest to many people considering not everyone gets the chance to see these majestic creatures. Secondly, to make fisho’s and boaties aware that these things are out in large numbers at the moment and to be extremely careful when venturing out to sea, especially during low light periods.

Humpback whales make their annual migration from Antarctica to the warmer waters of the Great Barrier Reef marine park between May and September each year. They do this in order to court, mate, give birth or rear their calves.

These pictures exhibit the standard tail extensions, flippering and breaching behaviour.

There are a bunch of do’s and don’ts when it comes to boating near whales so if you need to be informed, please check the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authoritys website. Some very basic ones include not being allowed to motor within 100m of a whale (unless it comes up to you when stationary) and only 3 boats are allowed to be in the caution zone which is between 100m-300m from the whale. These images were all taken whilst in the caution zone and look closer due to the utilisation of a large zoom lens on the SLR.

These photographs actually belong to my friend and colleague Henriette and I would just like to thank her immensely for allowing me to use her amazing images for this post.

For the rest of the images, visit http://www.lukesfishinmission.com

Nice photos. Plenty of humbacks up here in the NT this time of year too mate. Amazing creatures.

Nice pics Luke - they do like to put on a show & enjoy themselves.

lukesfishinmission wrote:Probably not so relevant to you guys in the Territory .......

Yeah - what Max said. Upwards of 1/2 dozen Mum's with calves over around the Tiwi's a few weeks back.

lukesfishinmission wrote: There are a bunch of do’s and don’ts when it comes to boating near whales so if you need to be informed, please check the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authoritys website. Some very basic ones include not being allowed to motor within 100m of a whale (unless it comes up to you when stationary) and only 3 boats are allowed to be in the caution zone which is between 100m-300m from the whale.

I wonder if we got the same 'rules' ...... neither Mum nor youngn's seemed to even notice we were there the few times we chose to idle in along behind them

we saw one wed near the perons. no breaching just breathing.
great pics luke

nice shots

We saw one breach about six weeks ago near the perons also, I couldnt believe how massive they are!!