Byron Bay Whale Watching

Bladerunner Visits Byron

byron — Sat, 13 Jun 2009 11:09:15 +0000

Today Bladerunner, the amazing survivor of a previous boat strike, passed Byron Bay on his annual migration to the Great Barrier Reef. Bearing the horrific scars from a propeller wound received on a previous migration this humpback was seen accompanied by another whale casually swimming north. It was a great day with many whales sited on all tours.

In addition to the whales there are currently numerous bottle-nosed dolphins in the bay and a rarer visit by the yellow-nosed albatross.

Make the most of the glorious weather and join us at one of the worlds best whale watching locations.

2009 Whale Watching Tours Have Commenced

byron — Tue, 09 Jun 2009 02:59:58 +0000

Whale Watching Byron Bay commenced tours for the 2009 season on the Queens Birthday long weekend. Passengers were not disappointed with humpback whales encountered on every tour. Sea conditions were perfect and the whales put on an amazing performance with many breaching. As a bonus a large pod of inshore bottle-nose dolphins is currently residing in the bay and they have done their best to upstage the humpback whales. We have attached some photographs of the weekends tours to this post.

The main population of humpback whales is currently passing Cape Byron on their northern migration to their breeding and birthing grounds off the Great Barrier Reef. They will continue swimming north past Byron Bay until mid August. From August until November we will again see them returning south heading to their feeding grounds off the antarctic coast.

The weather forecast for this week is great so join us and witness this incredible natural event.

Individual Whales Identified In Byron Bay

byron — Fri, 10 Apr 2009 00:04:47 +0000

Every humpback whale has a unique pigment pattern on the underside of its tail fluke. Photographs of flukes enable researchers to identify individual whales, so repeated sightings of individuals can reveal information about their life histories, migration patterns and population size.

In an ongoing collaborative project between Whale Watching Byron Bay and Southern Cross University Whale Research Centre, a catalogue of fluke photos is being compiled of humpback whales that pass through Byron Bay.

Already, two whales that were photographed last year have been identified as having visited Byron Bay in previous years.

BB08017 went south through Byron Bay in October 2008 and is known to have visited Byron previously in 2005.

BB08022 was photographed heading north in early July 2004 and again going north in early July 2008.

BB08022 2004

BB08022 2008

Whale Watching Season Continues To Deliver

byron — Mon, 27 Oct 2008 22:27:09 +0000

Humpback whales are still traveling past Byron Bay in large numbers.

Although many of the pods are mothers and calves there are also plenty of large adults not traveling with calves. It is likely these humpbacks are competitive males evident by a high incidence of whale song still being heard on our hydrophone.

It seems whale watching tours will continue well into November this year as we are encountering more whales now then the same time in previous years. As the Humpback whale population grows it is likely that we will encounter whales earlier and later during future seasons.

Still Coming South

byron — Tue, 14 Oct 2008 05:32:45 +0000

It seems that the main population of Humpback whales is still traveling south past Byron Bay. Over the last few days we have encountered between 10 and 25 whales per tour, many of these female Humpbacks with this years calves.

At this time of the year the whales travel very close to the coast often within a few hundred meters of the beach. One individual was witnessed just behind the breakers only 50 meters from the beach. Near by, dolphins and sea birds were feeding on bait fish so perhaps this whale was opportunistically feeding as well before the long journey south.

To see this many whales at this time of the year indicates that the whale watching season will continue well into November.

Southern Right Whale Visits Byron Bay

new whale — Tue, 15 Jul 2008 06:07:59 +0000

On Wednesday afternoon we were fortunate to see a Southern Right whale pass just to the east of Julian Rocks.

Whilst most Southern Rights migrate to their birthing and breeding grounds off the coast of southern Australia, there is a small rarely seen population that migrates up the east coast.

Record Numbers Passing Cape Byron

new whale — Sun, 29 Jun 2008 05:53:20 +0000

Southern Cross University has recorded record numbers of Humpback whales passing Cape Byron during the two week census starting last week.

Last Wednesday 107 whales were counted breaking all previous records. This was bettered on Friday with 110 whales recorded passing the cape.

So far it has been a great start to Byron’s Whale Watching season.

Humpback whale season starts early in Byron Bay

new whale — Mon, 28 Apr 2008 23:25:13 +0000

It’s only the end of April and already the first humpback whale sightings were recorded off Cape Byron. That is fantastic news and with the beautiful weather we have been having over the last week it looks like a great autumn in Byron Bay.