The first whales of the season have been spotted off the South Coast this week.
The team at Sapphire Coastal Adventures were heading back from a fishing charter when they received a call from a friend who had seen whales passing Eden early on Tuesday morning (May 16).
They swiftly turned around and found a mother humpback whale with a calf around 4 miles (around 6.5km) off the middle of Merimbula Bay.
Not only did the team get to see a blow (pictured above) but the mother whale breached three times (pictured below).
It appears the northern humpback whale migration is well under way.
There have been several reports of whales sighted off Green Cape and Bermagui over the last few days.
The northern migration of humpback whales usually begins in May and June when they head to the warm waters of Queensland to mate, calve and nurture their newborns.
The southbound journey of around 50,000 whales travelling on the ‘humpback highway’ starts in August/September and sees the huge mammals swim from the Hervey Bay area south, past the South Coast to the frigid, food-rich waters of Antarctica.
Images: Sapphire Coastal Adventures
