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Humpback Whale Watching Report For Gold Coast AustraliaLatest Humpback Whale Watching Report Update: Monday 30 August 2010 About Carol from Aquatic Blue Charters - Coolangatta Whale WatchCarol and her husband Tony and their son Zac run Aquatic Blue Charters (a.k.a. Coolangatta Whale Watch) and Cooly Dive in Coolangatta. Their family run business has seen them move further north over the years, but they have spent many years following their passion and sharing it with visitors to Australia. We are very lucky to have them here on the Gold and Tweed Coasts at Coolangatta. I hope you enjoy Carol's whale news and updates. I am certainly going to be hanging out to read them and see the photos. We are so lucky to have local Gold Coast whale watching guru - Carol The Whale Women from Aquatic Blue Charters - Coolangatta Whale Watch as our guest reporter.
In 2009, Carol and the WhaleWatcher crew got to spend some time with the magical white humpback, Migaloo. Let's hope that Carol can share some photos and stories of a sighting this whale watching season. Fingers crossed. This is a great place to find out what you can expect on your whale watching tours, what's happening and other interesting whale information. We hope you enjoy this whale news as it unfolds during the season. If you want to get a feel for what humpback whale watching is all about here's a video taster of the whales! Please Note: All photographs within the content on this page Humpback Whale Watching are © 2010 copyright of Aquatic Blue Charters - Coolangatta Whale Watch and may not be copied or used without their express permission. Don't forget you can book your whale watching cruise with Carol and Tony right here. Enjoy the latest whale watching update.... Gold Coast Humpback Whale Watching News For Monday 30 August 2010Posted by: Carol Mon 30/08/2010 4:14 PM Good afternoon happy humpback whale watchers! This week has been simply awesome. Monday was wet and sloppy out to sea, but we had fantastic whales. Tuesday we had fantastic whales - around 13 pods. Whales everywhere, great conditions, Wednesday around 6 pods and heaps of dolphins. Thursday we had over 10 pods (that’s at least 2 whales per pod). Whales out on the horizon. Friday, another 10 pods. We had a cow and calf just off Cooli and she breached 20 feet from the boat. Later in the trip we had double breaches, whales under the boat, next to the boat - in fact whales everywhere! Whales are now pretty much heading south. Haven’t seen the new season calves coming from the north yet – they are nearly here! Every single day we are seeing heaps and heaps of whales and having plenty of close of encounters with the friendly whales coming straight over to the boat. The outlook for the coming week is great weather and we have room on trips at the moment. This week we have a diving/snorkelling trip going out on Saturday afternoon at 1.30pm. Transfers are available from as far north as Burleigh Heads. Cost of pick ups from Burleigh Heads through to Currumbin - $10 per person with a minimum of $20. From Tugun through all suburbs to the boat - $5 per person with a minimum of $10. This has been Carol the “Whale Women” until next time - happy humpback whale watching. Book your whale watching cruise with Carol and Tony P.S:: Dive Trip and Snorkel Trips have heaps of turtles and fish around Cook Island. Book your Snorkel With The Turtles Tours or Discover Scuba Diving experiences here. Gold Coast Humpback Whale Watching News For Sunday 22 August 2010Posted by: Carol Sun 22/08/2010 4:13 PM Good afternoon happy humpback whale watchers! Wow! Yet another magnificent week of whale watching off Coolangatta. I still can’t believe how lucky I am !!! We certainly have the best whale watching that I have ever experienced in my 10 years at this business. There is something about this area that the whales seem to love and they come in so close. We have been seeing whales on every single trip and heaps and heaps of them. A few days this week we had whales all around the boa. We didn’t know which pod to look at !! We have had whales come to the boat several times, new calves, double breaching, spy hopping, pec slapping, tail lobbing and the list goes on and on – fantastic stuff. We have had the hydrophones over this week. We could hear them singing – how cool is that. Our new friends on board the boat looked on in disbelief as they could hear the sound of the humpback whales !! Generally, the whales are in a relaxed mood now that it is August. We have whales going north and south. We haven’t seen our first calves from the Whitsundays yet. But we have seen plenty (11) or brand new babies born around Coolangatta still going north, but nothing from the north going south just yet, should be this week.
Just had to show you these pictures from Saturday afternoons trip, in sequence, picture 1 shows first whale breaching with 2nd whale just about to come out of the water near whale 1’s belly. Picture 2 here comes whale 2. Picture 3 more of the second breaching whale and finally the full breach of whale 2 in Picture 4. Isn’t this magnificent !! and we got heaps more than this - magic. This week we are expecting nice conditions from Tuesday onwards, Monday a bit rainy. Don't forget we have pickups running from accommodations from Burleigh Heads south to Coolangatta and Tweed Heads. We hope to see you soon on one of our awesome humpback whale watching cruises! We know you will totally love it! Here are some of the reasons that our visitors love us:
This has been Carol the “Whale Women” until next time - happy humpback whale watching. Book your whale watching cruise with Carol and Tony
Gold Coast Humpback Whale Watching News For Thursday 19 August 2010Posted by: Carol Thurs 19/08/2010 16:36 PM Good afternoon happy humpback whale watchers! Just a quick update since the last catch up. Last Saturday 14th August we had 5 whales MOB the boat for 1½ hours. What a treat! I was screaming and running about like a maniac. All the passengers couldn’t believe what was happening. These whales just kept on coming back to the boat time and time again. FANTASTIC – money just can’t buy this sort of humpback whale watching. We are only half way through the season so there is great humpback whale watching still to come. Babies are on their way, there have already been about 10 babies we have seen. Migaloo should be back around the end of September. When we are going out we are now starting to see whales going both ways, those still going north and those now returning. Don't forget the courtesy bus if you need a pick up. It has been an awesome season, we have had a few days when we couldn't go out due to bad weather, high winds or rough seas, but when we have gone out it has been awesome. We have seen whales every single day – no misses since 2006! This has been Carol the “Whale Women” until next time - happy humpback whale watching. Book your whale watching cruise with Carol and Tony Gold Coast Humpback Whale Watching News For Thursday 12 August 2010Posted by: Carol Thurs 12/08/2010 10:13 AM Good morning happy humpback whale watchers! I am amazed that I have let two weeks go by since my last post – I must admit I have been rather busy with humpback whale watching every day. I lost my script book overboard with all my valuable notes in – I was not impressed. Lesson learnt, take notes daily and bring back to office ! We have been seeing whales every single day. We are now starting to see them slowly going back – which means the season is half over, the odd one or two, not going south in droves just yet. So here's what's been happening Tuesday 10th, Wednesday 11th and Thursday 12th August – too rough, windy, raining to go humpback whale watching. It was awful weather so we did not go to sea. Plenty of whales still going north as I watched from the headland. The whales are just starting to go south and plenty still going north. We had heaps of babies being born around the Cooly area and so far it has been a sensational season. We have a busy weekend ahead, hope the weather holds now right through the rest of the season – not too enthused about sitting on the headland when I could be out with my whales ! Monday 9th August – plenty of whale action today. Found our first pod at 9.20am. A cow and calf straight off Cooly, we first spotted the whale and started to make our way over there and she breached fair out of the water and she was HUGE ! We had no time to take photo’s and she breached straight away now close to the boat. We couldn’t believe how big she was and then she started tail thrashing. We then saw the calf, what a good mother she was protecting her calf and we backed right away and let her be and she was then happy. We left her altogether off Cooly happily swimming north with her baby. We had flying fish today. We headed further offshore to a pod out wider that was breaching. Well we found magic out there – we had 6 pods of whales all around us – in front to the left to the right behind us – how exciting ! They were quite active. By 10.10 whales were everywhere, we had tail lobbing, pectoral fin slapping, breaching whales coming to the boat and today we had DOUBLE BREACHES from one pod and several DOUBLE BREACHES at that. Had another pod going south out wider. Our double breaches stopped, must have been tired and we went to another pod breaching. Came across another pod off Cooly and Burleigh with tails and breaching. Another pod further south breaching and another pod breaching out wide – another great day. Sunday 8th August – heaps of whales Morning Trip - Found our first pod by 9.25am. 3 in the pod straight off Cooly, heading south, not active to start with and then by 9.55am they had woken up and became active with breaching. Left this pod at 10.10am and headed off to breaching whales to the north who were once again heading south, 2 in this pod. Had another pod out wider breaching, one whale in the pod going north, heaps of tails. Next pod came straight to the boat, swam in front of boat, two whales going north, another whale joined in and there were 3 in the pod. Another pod in front of these ones going north and on our way in at 11.15am we had another 3 pods all within 200 meters of the boat – great morning. Afternoon trip - We came across a cow and calf going north off Cooly, the calf was only a couple of days old, didn’t stay long with them once we realised she had a calf. Had huge pod of dolphins today, busy feeding and did not come to the boat. Another pod of 2 whales going north by 2.20pm on the 50 metre mark again, moving quickly and diving. Left them at 2.30pm, had another pod out wider 3 or more whales, another 2 pods going north. Another pod further south off Kingscliff breaching – 2 whales, another 2 pods with 5 whales, at one stage had 4 pods across front of the boat, one breached right next to the boat in a pod of 3 - plenty of whales today – great day :)) Saturday 7th August – plenty of whales about The afternoon trip we had around 4 pods, one off Burleigh and another pod not too far away, not overly active from these three pods, had one other pod with 3 whales on the 50 meter mark and they came close to the boat Friday 6th August – 3 pods Found our first pod around 9.25am another pod off Cooly on the 50 metre mark, whales breaching and pec fin slapping, tail lobbing, not really travelling anywhere, just hanging around playing. We enjoyed porpoising and then they disappeared. Another pod appeared and breached right in front of the boat around 10.30am. We had several lazy breaches from this pod who continued to go in circles, there were 3 whales in the pod. Thursday 5th August – heaps of whales today Found our first pod by 9.20am, 3 whales off Fingal, then a pod of 2 heading south in calm water, just happy swimming along nice and close to Cook Island. Found another pod around 9.50am off Cook Island pectoral fin slapping, another pod out wider, another pod going north a mile off Cook, another pod off Kingscliff around 10.25am breaching several times and another pod behind this pod. Plenty of whales about, by 10.55am we had breaching whales near the boat and another pod breaching not far off, around 8 pods today with around 16 whales – good stuff. Wednesday 4th August – sleepy whales today We had 4 pods but took ages on our humpback whale watching cruise to find them this morning. Found our first pod around 10.25am, my goodness was getting a bit worried that we wouldn’t find them today, but we came good in the end, all whales asleep today, not active at all. Tuesday 3rd August – heaps of whales Came across 7 pods around 5.5 miles off Cooly. At one stage we had 5 pods of whales all in a line across the left hand side of the boat – WOW ! There were pods everywhere – we were surrounded, they swam across the front of the boat had heaps of tail lobs and flukes – great day out with the whales today. Monday 2nd August heaps of whales Had whales by 9.15am, cow and calf straight off Coolangatta, a couple of days old just moving along slowly north, we left them at 9.25am. Had pods out wider, so we went for a look found 3 pods on the 50 metre mark, tail dives. Had more pods coming from the south Flying fish today and found 2 other pods happily going North a bit quicker today. Not a lot of action today compared to yesterday, plenty of action out wider later in the trip. Sunday 1st August – lost my book today but I remember what happened! How could I forget this day? This morning humpback whale watching trip was a nice trip, lovely conditions and plenty of whales about, we had one Cow laying low in the water, very still, we first thought the whale may have been injured as we had been told by VMR (Volunteer Marine Rescue) that the whale had been sitting in the same spot for a long time and it may have been injured. As we approached slowly we could see she had a calf and a sigh of relief came across me – we left her to enjoy her calf and went out to more whales. The afternoon trip was one special trip. We enjoyed the company of a very friendly Cow (mum) with her BRAND NEW CALF this calf would have only been hours old, still white and possibly the same cow that we came across on the morning trip that had not moved. We did not take any photo’s of the cow in the morning so was unable to say for sure if it was the same one. To our delight this Cow came straight over to the boat with her new baby – oh my god – how cool was this – I have seen this several times before and this time was by far the very best I have ever seen. She actually put the calf on her nose and bought her baby to the boat. We nick named the calf “Cooly” and she not only did it once, but twice. The next time she came to the boat with the calf, the calf was rolling over and playing beside the boat – everyone onboard was beside themselves. It was a magical experience and probably one that all these lovely people will never see ever again – exceptional !! We took footage of our baby and it made it on the Channel 7 news on the Monday night. Here is a photo of “Cooly” a 2.5 meter Humpback Whale off Coolangatta
Note from Annie: I have been trying to track down the video from Channel 7 News to post here, but I cannot find one to post yet! How beautiful is this? Absolutely beautiful, you can see on the middle photo scrape marks that have been left by – we think – a shark that has attacked the calf, on the other side you could see actual teeth marks – one lucky calf – maybe we should call him/her ‘lucky cooly’ A memorable day indeed. Oh we did see heaps of other whales that afternoon – but they seemed to get lost in our excitement for Cooly !! Funny about that !! Saturday 31st July – no trip too rough and windy for humpback whale watching Friday 30th July – lost notes – but had whales Wednesday 28th, Thursday 29th July – no trip with heavy rain and wind Monday 26th, Tuesday 27th July – lost notes – but we had whales I know that for a fact Book your Snorkel With The Turtles Tours or Discover Scuba Diving experiences here. We do pick up service from accommodation on the southern end of the Gold Coast from Palm Beach/Elanora through all suburbs to the boat in South Tweed Heads. Will do pick ups from Kingscliff area too. Book your whale watching cruise with Carol and Tony This has been Carol the “Whale Women” until next time - happy humpback whale watching. Annie's comments: WOW! What I would have given to be out on the Whale Watcher on Sunday 1 August to meet Cooly! That would certainly have been something very special and certainly not something you see everyday when you go humpback whale watching - even Carol who is a diehard thought this was incredibly special. It really doesn't get any better than this. If you have ever thought about going humpback whale watching, don't delay book your whale watching cruise with Carol and Tony now I am quite confident you will have a day to remember.. Gold Coast Humpback Whale Watching News For Monday 26 July 2010Posted by: Carol Mon 26/07/2010 11:10 AM Good morning happy whale watchers! Another fantastic week of beautiful humpbacks. How lucky are we? Every single day I pinch myself and ask that same question – How lucky am I? I head out to sea every morning with my husband on a beautiful boat and spend time with some of the most beautiful mammals on earth, humpback whale watching! OK, the mammals on board are pretty good too! But the ones in the water are better ! I get to see humpback whales breaching, playing and splashing around the ocean, watch them as they tail lob and chase each other all over the place. I get to enjoy some of the best views in the world. As I look back at Coolangatta from the ocean – I once again say how lucky am I? This week once again, blessed with whales everywhere, we are now starting to see them in a more relaxed mood with them starting to come to the boat more often, rolling over near the boat, slapping their pectoral fins as they show us their bellies. This week we have had some OMG – DID YOU SEE THAT – people screaming with joy as the whales breached near the boat, came to the boat, rolled over, swam under the boat in front of the boat – WHAT A WEEK !
These photos are of a whale breaching near the boat off Coolangatta and of the whales so close to the boat. Hope you like these pictures and this is what people are seeing who come on our humpback whale watching tours. This has been Carol the “Whale Women” until next time - happy humpback whale watching. Book your whale watching cruise with Carol and Tony Gold Coast Humpback Whale Watching News For Monday 19 July 2010Posted by: Carol Mon 19/07/2010 7:58 AM Good morning happy whale watchers! What a FANTASTIC WEEK of whale watching we had. We only lost one day due to bad sea conditions and the rest of the week – AWESOME !!! Heaps and Heaps of whales coming through. We have had breaching whales every day bar one trip. They were having a little sleep, still plenty of whales just not active. We have been seeing around 8-20 whales every trip and not too far off the coast. We have had them to the boat, pectoral fin slapping, we even had one male whale singing under the boat showing us his big fat white belly !!! Pure Magic !! Today we had heaps of tails and plenty of breaching and the sea was calm. We have been putting the hydrophone over the side and listening to them singing – doesn’t that our visitors emotional – they can’t believe what they are hearing – very exciting. Everyone is having a great time. Trips this week: Plenty of room on the morning trips, weather is looking pretty good all week, with preference for earlier on Monday and Tuesday for the better weather, but good all week. Heaps of whales and loads of fun, see you all out there. This has been Carol the “Whale Women” until next time - happy humpback whale watching. Book your whale watching cruise with Carol and Tony P.S:: Dive Trip and Snorkel Trip scheduled for Sunday 25 July at 1.30pm. Plenty of room, heaps of turtles and fish around Cook Island. Book your Snorkel With The Turtles Tours or Discover Scuba Diving experiences here. Gold Coast Humpback Whale Watching News For Monday 12 July 2010Posted by: Carol Mon 12/07/2010 5:51 PM Good morning happy whale watchers! Whales ! Whales! Whales! They are everywhere and what a show! Simply AWESOME!! Let’s see - this is how my week’s been! Tuesday 6 July 2010 Morning Trip: 3 pods of whales off Cabarita breaching, pectoral fin slapping all within 200 meters of each other and one turtle all by 9.25am !!! Now there are 4 pods – more whales ! 1 pod of 8 whales off Cook Island, 1 pod of 2 off Coolangatta, more breaching!!! Tuesday 6 July 2010 Afternoon Trip: 1 whale breaching off Tugun by 2.05pm (we left at 1.30) and this whale continuously breached for 1 hour. We had to leave – he was making us tired !! We counted 10 breaches every 5 minutes – this one had bucket loads of energy and he threw in a few pectoral fin slaps just to break it up !!! Simply AWESOME. We also had some terns and another 2 pods off Coolangatta and Cook Island by 3.50pm and plenty more breaching out wide. Wednesday 7 July 2010 Morning Trip: One whale that was very friendly, he came to the boat with tail flukes and very happy just swimming along. We saw an Albatross and was nice and calm – great day. Thursday 8 July and Friday 9 July 2010 - too rough and windy did not go Saturday 10 July 2010 Morning Trip: 1 pod about 3½ miles off Coolangatta. Pods coming from the south and one breaching whale ahead of us! It was getting exciting. We had breaching whales on the horizon, we had our one pod that joined another pod, they went quiet, only stayed together 15 minutes and went their separate ways all this by 9.50am. Breaches by 10.05 from another Pod. We had terns and 2 albatross – great day. Saturday 10 July 2010 Afternoon Trip: We had whales breaching and breaching and breaching. Had two whales come right to the boat, swam under and around and to the back. We had albatross and more whales and more breaching – FANTASTIC STUFF. Sunday 11 July 2010 Morning Trip: 2 pods of whales by 9.20am heaps of breaching. By 10.10am we had whales come to the boat, swim under the boat, in front, left these whale and headed south. Then we found two of the best ever whales! They were pec slapping, rolling over, waving and one of them swam over to the boat. He swam upside down under the boat and we could HEAR HIM SINGING THROUGH THE BOAT. He LOOKED AT ALL THE PEOPLE ON THE FRONT OF THE BOAT !!! They were so happy !!! As they yelled “I can see his EYE!!” Nah! Doesn’t get any better than that !!! FANTASTIC MORNING !! Sunday 11 July 2010 Afternoon Trip: Plenty of whales this arvo, not as active as this morning, but still heaps of breaches, pec slapping and tail lobbing, whales are everywhere Monday 12 July 2010 Morning Trip: WHAT A DAY !!! We would have seen around 15 – 20 whales and they were racing for around 1 hour. We had breaches and snorts from the males. We had 5 pods of whales all around us, with more pods coming up from behind – heaps and heaps of fun today and BUCKET LOADS of whales !!! We had double breaches, double everything great stuff. Well didn’t I have a great time this week, I hope your week was as good as mine and we had some very very happy people onboard this week!! How good was this and it is only getting better. The weather is nice for Tuesday, Wednesday is windy, nice again Thursday and Friday etc, with sunshine all week and a nice sea. Trips this week - obviously this information goes out of date quickly so book in early, but here is the run down as it stands Monday 12 July 2010: Tuesday 13 July am fully booked Thanks for your support, everyone is really happy with the whales and their trip over all – so make sure you book for one of the best things you will do these holidays. This has been Carol the “Whale Women” until next time - happy humpback whale watching. Book your whale watching cruise with Carol and Tony Gold Coast Humpback Whale Watching News For Monday 5 July 2010Posted by: Carol Mon 5/07/2010 3:26 PM Good morning happy whale watchers! The whales have been fantastic this week. We have enjoyed some amazing sights over the last couple of weeks. Last week on Monday we encountered some 80 whales. This is an amazing amount of whales in one day. The most I have ever seen in the 10 years of whale watching up and down the east coast – absolutely amazing. We missed seeing Migaloo, we had a couple of sightings of a ‘white whale’ but nothing confirmed until he was seen off Fraser Island over a week ago. So he is safe and sound up north for the moment. Hopefully will see him on his way home in September – fingers crossed. We have seen dolphins, turtles, flying fish and plenty of Gannets and Albatross – beautiful birds and heaps and heaps of humpback whales. We have encountered them coming near the boat, not too close as they are very interested in each other at this time of the year with mating season well and truly underway. The breaching has been awesome, some whales continuously breaching. Last week we came across one of the largest whales I have ever seen, he would have been 16 meters if not more and he was the breaching whale in the pod – oh my goodness !! it was awesome !! It has not been taking us long to find them either. Usually by around 9.30am we have spotted our first pod and then it just keeps getting better after that. The whales over the last 2 days have been in a restful mood, plenty of whales, but not overly active. We noticed a change in their behaviour yesterday afternoon as they all started to wake up and play around. The sea was a bit choppy on Sunday and came up windy this morning, we did not go to sea this morning due to the winds. The next few days are looking fantastic, with slight cloud cover Tuesday and Wednesday but mostly fine, Thursday and Friday we might see some rain. Remember to to rug up as it has been very cold out to sea. We recommend you take sea sickness precautions too before you get on the boat. Make sure you arrive 30 minutes before the departure time. This week trips are booking up quickly. Obviously this information goes out of date quickly so book in early, but here is the run down as it stands Monday 5 July 2010: Tuesday 6 July 9am full Plenty of whale action happening. We have not missed seeing them at all, still a 100% success since 2006. We have the Snorkel and Dive Tour going out on Wednesday, there’s heaps of turtles about, plenty of crystal clear water so you can see heaps of great stuff, you can even hear the whales singing out there!! Now that’s awesome – we supply all the gear and can arrange pick up if required. Book your Snorkel With The Turtles Tours or Discover Scuba Diving experiences here. We do pick up service from accommodation on the southern end of the Gold Coast from Palm Beach/Elanora through all suburbs to the boat in South Tweed Heads. Will do pick ups from Kingscliff area too. Book your whale watching cruise with Carol and Tony This has been Carol the “Whale Women” until next time - happy humpback whale watching. Gold Coast Humpback Whale Watching News For Saturday 26 June 2010Posted by: Carol 28/6/2010 10.04am Magnificent humpback whale watching with 15 whales today! Found the whales around 9.25am again today. One small lonely whale off Cooli and then one other larger whale was racing over to be with the first whale. Once he caught up, they raced along breaching and a couple of times breached together. One lucky customer photographed this. We had spy hops in the distance and tail flukes. After around 30 minutes they went their separate ways and continued on their way. We left them and headed south out to around 52 meters of water, where we have been finding most of our pods. There we found yet again another pod of 4 whales pushing and shoving - doing the same as yesterday !! Left this pod after a while of observation as they headed out to sea and found another pod of 2, another pod of 2 porpoising making their way to each other. Found another pod off Cooli and another pod off Cook. Had Albatross again today, only one though, don’t seem to see them in pairs out to sea.
Just a couple of shots from this week - fabulous week of humpback whale watching. How can you possibly beat the experience that whale watching brings you? You can experience the thrill of the majestic humpback whale as he glides through the water on his way north to breed in far north Queensland - it’s just awesome. The boys went out for a dive and snorkel off Cook Island this afternoon and found heaps and heaps of turtles, had dolphins and whales and excellent visability. A great week of whale watching and diving. This has been Carol the “Whale Women” until next time - happy humpback whale watching PS: There will be no COMMERCIAL WHALING - fantastic news - the IWC has voted no to this rediculous behaviour - though allowing Greenland to slaughter 10 humpback whales every year for three years - this is a very sad announcement - we will keep fighting to save whales each and every day. Annie's comments: Ditto Carol's sentiments about whaling. It is a complex issue, but in the end there is so much evidence for protecting whales. School holidays this week, so expect humpback whale watching tours to be busy make sure you book early! Book your whale watching cruise with them Aquatic Blue here Gold Coast Humpback Whale Watching News For Friday 25 June 2010Posted by: Carol 28/6/2010 10.04am An 8 whale trip. We found whales by 9.25am straight off Fingal Head about 3 miles off shore. Another pod of 1 whale breaching behind the first pod and they came straight to the boat - great stuff. We left this lot and headed out to sea where we could see breaching whales off in the distance. We came across a pod of 4 very active whales with constant breaching and chasing each other around the sea - after all it is mating season and we figured we had one female whale being harrassed by 3 males as her head kept on bobbing to the surface as the males surrounded her - very active today. They continued to breach even as we left them to their games and headed back into shore. On our way in just off Cooli and single whale, that we didn’t even know was there just launched itself out of the water about 200 meters in front of the boat and breached again for us - wow what a great day. We saw loads of breaching out on the horizon, had 2 dolphins in the river, no dolphins out to sea today. This has been Carol the “Whale Women” until next time - happy humpback whale watching. Gold Coast Humpback Whale Watching News For Thursday 24 June 2010Posted by: Carol 28/6/2010 10.04am Another brilliant humpback whale watching day. An 8 whale day! What a great day we had today. The boat had a fantastic energy feel this morning - everyone was happy and eager to see their first whale. One couple had been whale watching four times before on other boats (not ours) and had NEVER seen a whale on any of these trips. I congratulated them on their persistence in trying to see a whale and I promised them they would see a whale with me. Sure enough we had a great day with plenty of whale action - they were ever so thankful and have gone away very very happy with their experience. We enjoyed one pod of three whales breaching madly around 4.5 miles out to sea, the pod split and one whale went off on his own whilst the other two stayed with us and becoming quite inquisitive at times and swimming under the boat - everyone really enjoyed that. We then had whales coming up from the south, a fair bit of down time for those ones, so we didn’t see them too often but we had another pod breaching off Cook Island about 4 miles out to sea and that excited everyone as they breached and rolled over - great stuff. We had a beautiful albatross circling the boat - what a beautiful sight they are, with their wings spanning upto 11 feet (3.4m) weighing in around 10kg, these sea birds are rarely seen on land and gather only to breed in large colonies on islands producing one single egg in which the parents share in the care of. Their diet consists of squid and schooling fish. An amazing bird - I really like the Albatross. The next few days are looking great for whale watching - Migaloo has eluded us all thus far - no one has seen him for days - or was the original sighting a hoax !!! No photographic evidence just yet has surfaced - we had him last year 1st July and that is next week - keep you posted. This has been Carol the “Whale Women” until next time - happy humpback whale watching. Gold Coast Humpback Whale Watching News For Monday 21 June 2010Posted by: Annie 21/6/2010 12:23pm Quick update from Carol, the news is that Migaloo, the white (albino) humpback whale is on his way to the Gold Coast. Although sightings are not guaranteed, it is expected Migaloo will pass by the Gold Coast sometime tomorrow Tuesday 22 June 2010. It may be that he sneaks past out wide away from prying eyes, or that he goes past during the night - but let's hope that all the whale watchers on the boats tomorrow have an experience of a lifetime and catch sight of the famous white whale! Gold Coast Humpback Whale Watching News For Saturday 19 June 2010Posted by: Carol The Whale Women from Aquatic Blue Charters 19/6/2010 6:34pm We left the Tweed Bar and straight away found a pod of whales off Coolangatta about 1 mile off shore. They were not humpbacks, we think they were minke whales feeding. Very hard to keep up with them as they moved quickly chasing food, we spent around 20 minutes trying to capture them on film, but they are very quick and only got a few shots. We left this pod of around 6 and headed south in search of the beautiful humpbacks. It wasn’t too long before we came across a very happy pair of humpbacks straight off Coolangatta, around 4 miles out. What fantastic whales we had today, they breached and breached and breached, rolled over, tail lobbed and came to the boat a few times which delighted everyone, especially me !! The pair also porpoised several times - what a show today OMG~! great stuff. We spent around 1 hour with the pair who were very happy with our company, we bid them goodbye and made our way back towards Coolangatta. Around 1 mile off the Tweed Bar we were greeted by a very large pod of Common Dolphins who joined the boat and swam with us for around 5 minutes - another fantastic day.
This was today’s little beauty - we had this action all hour - awesome !!! What more can I say, This has been Carol the “Whale Women” until next time - happy humpback whale watching. Annie's comments: Carol sent me all the updates in one go, so I have split them out to each day. Hope you enjoy them, fancy seeing Minke Whales too! How awesome. Expect lots more whales this coming week and maybe even a surprise visit by Migaloo the albino humpback whale! Book your whale watching cruise with them Aquatic Blue here Gold Coast Humpback Whale Watching News For Friday 18 June 2010Posted by: Carol The Whale Women from Aquatic Blue Charters 19/6/2010 6:34pm Friday 18 June 2010 - did not go to sea ;-( Gold Coast Humpback Whale Watching News For Thursday 17 June 2010Posted by: Carol The Whale Women from Aquatic Blue Charters 19/6/2010 6:34pm  Thursday we had a fantastic day out with the whales, we found one pod of 2 breaching whales off Cook Island around the 9 Miles Reef (4.5 miles out to sea). Then another pod of 2 whales and another pod of 1 whales. All pods were in around the 5 miles off shore and spread over a few kilometers today. Had a great day today. This has been Carol the “Whale Women” until next time - happy humpback whale watching. Gold Coast Humpback Whale Watching News For Wednesday 16 June 2010Posted by: Carol The Whale Women from Aquatic Blue Charters 19/6/2010 6:34pm Reasonable sea conditions with a gentle swell and nice winter conditions. Found 1 pod of two whales straight off Coolangatta by 9.30am. The pod entertained us with breaching - fantastic stuff. We then spotted two other pods, so in the end all three pods joined for some play time. Great Day
Even got Mt Warning in this one - what a life !! This has been Carol the “Whale Women” until next time - happy humpback whale watching. Gold Coast Humpback Whale Watching News For Tuesday 15 June 2010Posted by: Carol The Whale Women from Aquatic Blue Charters 19/6/2010 6:34pm Sloppy sea and a bit warmer today. Found 1 pod with 2 whales off Burleigh, around 5 miles. This cow and her last year calf we not active at all - in fact - not at all interested in us today. We left this pair and headed south and found 2 more whales off Cook Island around 4.5 miles. This pod gave us one breach and also very quiet in the water. This has been Carol the “Whale Women” until next time - happy humpback whale watching. Gold Coast Humpback Whale Watching News For Monday 14 June 2010Posted by: Carol The Whale Women from Aquatic Blue Charters 14/6/2010 4:42pm Humpback Whale Playground off Coolangatta Gold CoastCheck this little guy out - double breaches off Coolangatta this morning !!! Great stuff.   
What a brilliant show we got this morning from this particular whale, he had a mate that was breaching too. Tony captured some great shots here. You can see Surfers Paradise in the background. We came across this pair of humpbacks within 20 minutes of leaving the Tweed River Bar, they were moving along nice and peacefully and after about 40 minutes off they went, breach after breach after breach - we were pretty happy little vegemites let me tell you. The humpback highway is about to get going as more and more whales start to flow through - bring it on I say!!! I love Whale Watching Season. This has been Carol the “Whale Women” until my next exciting report - happy humpback whale watching. Annie's comments: You can feel things hotting up on the humpback whale watching highway that is for sure! Yesterday's report, Carol pointed out how cold it has been and it is really important to rug up well for your trip on the water and waterproof is excellent too just in case you get sprayed. More tips about what to wear whale watching in my guide. Looks like the whales are really starting to come through and June school holidays start at the end of this week book your whale watching cruise now. Gold Coast Humpback Whale Watching News For Sunday 13 June 2010Posted by: Carol The Whale Women from Aquatic Blue Charters 13/6/2010 1:13pm Humpback Whales and Wintersun in CoolangattaWell here we are half way through June and it’s cold as !!! That southerly wind has a chill factor that goes through your bones - so we are rugging up out to sea and here in Coolangatta for this year’s Wintersun. Last week we travelled to sea Sunday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and today, Saturday. The whales were playing hard to get last week, we travelled and travelled to find the odd whale, but we found them in the end. The whales are a lot slower this year to come through, so hopefully that means we will have a longer season - who knows !! We still have our 100% humpback whale watching success rate in tack and that is great, there was a couple of trips there that we thought oh no !! we are going to miss them today but we found them hooray !! Here are a couple of photo’s from Saturday and Thursdays trip.  
Saturday 2 humpback whales next to the boat
Thursday a breaching humpback whale off Fingal Head We did not go out humpback whale watching today, Sunday, too windy and rough. This week the whales will be coming through in larger groups and we look forward to that. This has been Carol the “Whale Women” until next time - happy humpback whale watching. Annie's comments: As always very exciting reading these reports. Great tip from Carol - it does seem unusually chilly (or perhaps I have become such a Queenslander that I feel the cold more!) at the moment. Highly recommend you rug up well and check out my what to wear when whale watching guide. Whales should be coming through thick this week so book your whale watching cruise with them now. Gold Coast Humpback Whale Watching News For Sunday 6 June 2010Posted by: Carol The Whale Women from Aquatic Blue Charters 6/6/2010 5:53pm Sad Whale NewsOver the weekend, locals in Tallebudgera in the southern part of the Gold Coast saw a baby whale struggling in the surf and looking like it was going to beach itself. Sadly the baby humpback whale washed up on the beach apparently already dead. Traditional custodians of Tallebudgera the Kombumerri tribe granted permission for the whale to be buried on the beach. We should rejoice in our ability to see these humbpacks in their natural habitat frolicking, breaching, tail slapping, eyeing us up and playing. We are in a privileged position to do that here on the Gold Coast each year and quite simply in return we should do all we can to protect them. Hello everyone, in my last post on Wednesday we had loads of fun humpback whale watching off Tweed Heads. We didn't go out on Thursday. Went out on Friday the 4th June, 2010 and it took us 2 hours to find whales. They are diving for around 10-15 minutes and way way out to sea, around that 10 mile mark. Nearly impossible to see them from the shore today, unless you have a good set of eyes. We eventually found 3 large humpback whales off Coolangatta around the 9 mile mark. They were happily travelling north. The sea was magnificant. We saw heaps of common and large bottlenose dolphins, around 3 pods. All in all a great day out. Our 100% success rate still stands 4 yrs running - thank goodness for that !!! Did not go on Saturday. Today, Sunday, hard job again, we travelled many many miles in search of our magnificant mammals to only find one whale off Kingscliff and once again around 10 miles out to sea. There wasn't a blow or a breach anywhere in the distance. We had a couple of pods of dolphins that were feeding, not interested in coming to the boat today, not like Friday when the dolphins were literally everywhere and really happy swimming with the boat. Sea today was a little on the swelly side, pretty good really, loads of sunshine. Everyone had a great time and as we only saw one whale we offered everyone a return trip if they wished. There are hardly any ganets about, which is unusual for this time of year, I think we are going to get bombarded very very soon with heaps of whales, I think by weeks end they will be everywhere. Until next time this has been Carol 'The Whale Women" Happy Humpback Whale Watching. Annie's comments: I love reading these reports. You can see how hard Carol and Tony work to make sure their passengers have a great experience and when they don't think the humpback whale watching is up to scratch, they have no worries about enacting their guarantee. Whales should be coming through thick this week so book your whale watching cruise with them now. Gold Coast Humpback Whale Watching News For Wednesday 2 June 2010Posted by: Carol The Whale Women from Aquatic Blue Charters 2/6/2010 2:54pm The Humpback Whale Watching season is off to a great start. Tony and I went out this morning for the first time this season and were pleasantly surprised with what we found. Just 3 miles off the Coolangatta head land we came across our first whale. "There she blows" calls out Tony. Well the excitement was pumping as we awaited the next blow, then there it was again - yippee !!! As we patiently waited for the humpback to surface again, "there she blows over there" another pod about 400 meters to the left - we couldn't believe our luck - our first trip out and we had two pods. The children onboard were going crazy, screaming and jumping all over the deck, then off she went again - oh yes this was good. By now I'm up to the railing and yelling out with joy. As we were getting over this excitement we spotted another pod out wider and the other pod coming to the surface about every 10 minutes. Then our happy humpback came to the surface again, took the regular 3 breathes and then tail dives to our joy yet another breach - sweet!!! So by now we are all very happy little vegemites!!! We spent about 1 1/2 hours with our friendly whale and left him to continue his journey. But wait there's more!!! How much better can this get? Yes it can!! We came across around 100 dolphins - my goodness how good is this? They came to the boat and swam with us for around 10 minutes, there were calves splashing around, common dolphins riding the bow wake, as we all looked over the front of the boat you could see heaps and heaps of common dolphins swimming under us - what a fantastic day out !!! So all in all a great day and hope there's plenty more of them This has been Carol the “Whale Women” until next time - happy humpback whale watching. Annie's comments: WOW! Just reading this had my heart pumping. Since I have experienced humpback whale watching and it really doesn't get any better than this. But the 100 dolphins, that would have made me cry I am sure! Something I have always wanted to see a large pod of dolphins. I am sure Carol and Tony's passengers had a great time today. If you have ever wanted to do humpback whale watching why not go out with Carol and Tony one day, they will surely look after you and give you the time of your life. Don't delay book your whale watching cruise with them now. Saturday 29 May 2010Posted by: Carol The Whale Women from Aquatic Blue Charters 29/5/2010 3:43pm Today being Saturday 29th May, we were to journey out to find our first humpback whale watching for the season. We did not get there. Much to my dismay and dissappointment! We awoke to high seas, rough and woolly conditions, rainy and cold - this was not suitable conditions to go whale watching. When you can't see through the rain you can't see the whales - so due to our customer care policy we cancelled. The wind just didn't give up all morning and as they morning passed conditions got worse - so yes lucky we cancelled! Sorry to all of you that were on the trip, but we hope you come again when the conditions are nicer. So no whales today, we will try again tomorrow. This has been Carol the whale women until next time... In the mean time if you want to see what humpback whale watching is like check out this short video below! Friday 28 May 2010Posted by: Carol The Whale Women from Aquatic Blue Charters 28/5/2010 10.19am Hi everyone, it’s hotting up here on the Gold Coast, the excitement is building and it’s one more day until this little whale women is back on the high seas with the love of her life, other than my husband and children of course, those magnificent Humpback Whales. We have seen the odd one or two going by Coolangatta, they have been around that 4 nautical miles offshore. What a sight when I saw my first blow this week, anyone would have thought I had won the lottery up there at Duranbah - yippee !! they’re back!!! We head out tomorrow at 9am to get our first taste of the magnificent mammals for the first time in 2010, I will have the video and still camera ready, I will post these onto the site tomorrow afternoon. Just got off the phone from a mate in Sydney from True Blue Cruises and they have been seeing whales this week, even got a couple of Minke Whales on Monday, so they are definitely coming through now. There’s been heaps of sightings down the coast over the last couple of weeks, now it’s our turn. We have trips running every day - see you out there This has been Carol the “Whale Women” until next time - happy humpback whale watching. Posted by: Annie 28/5/2010 7.00am Only one more sleep before the whale watching tours on the Gold Coast start for Season 2010. I thought you might like a taste of what you can expect. I particularly like this humpback whale watching video because you can see the enthusiasm and excitement of everyone on the boat. The funniest bit is where the whale blows snot over everyone and they are still happy :-D. Sit back and enjoy this short video and don't forget to book your tickets. Thursday 27 May 2010Posted by: Annie Only two more sleeps till the whale watching tours begin! Carol, Tony and Zac are excitedly preparing for the beginning of the Gold Coast Whale Watching Season 2010. Carol posted about The Whale Womens Passion yesterday describing her passion and how excited she was to see her first whales of the season from the land. That should whet your appetite. More soon.... Annie
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Throughout the 2010 whale watching season, Carol will be sharing the very latest whale sightings, humpback photos and maybe even some videos of whales that pass by the east coast of Australia on their migration north.
But wait there's more - as we sat waiting and waiting and waiting - there in front of us the most beautiful thing out - our beautiful humpback breached - didn't that get everyone screaming. 
