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Trip Reports Woody Head, Clarence coast Woody Head whale watching | Woody Head whale watching | | Print | |
| Written by Josh | |
| Monday, 19 October 2009 | |
 Baby humpback leaping it's way out into the ocean After reading that according to the Mouri Fishing Calendar that Saturday was supposed to be an 'excellent' fishing day, I got myself over-excited and planned to spend most of that day on the water. Armed with the usual load out of rods & tackle, today I packed a few more snacks than usual... a snickers bar and packet of corn chips added to the typical bag of nuts and Vegemite sandwich. If the fish were going to be on the bite, I was going to give myself all the time in the world to find them. According to my sounder I did, in all the usual 'go-to' fish holding spots I've marked in the Woody Head area. But save for a sole bonito hooked while trolling, catch them, I could not. Maybe I'd have achieved better results by casting and bouncing lures around the reefs, but not wishing to further injure my already troubled shoulder (saving it for Fraser island) I decided to troll instead. All told I covered some 26km, though not all of it was in the pursuit of fish. Soon after launching I spotted a pair of humpback whales just a few km out from shark bay, and slowly moving towards my direction. Of course I pedalled to close the distance, pulling up some 200 metres from their position and then waited (and hoped) for them to swim on over. Thats exactly what they did to, and when they arrived they seemed to pause for a bit and then move on slowly. I did film this as it occured, though I neglected to film their approach. This is a little unfortunate, as I can't prove I didn't approach them beyond the legal proximity. I showed the clip to a few people today, all of whom suggested that it very well might get me in trouble with the law, so I've decided not to upload it. Snippets of the footage will appear in a future highlight reel, but not as a trip report. It's just too easy for an observer to get the wrong impression. Suffice to say that the whales came within 2 metres of the kayak, which was as intimidating as it was awe-inspiring. In hind sight, I now wish I was snapping photos instead of rolling video. Later on I spotted the same whales, this time joined by a 3rd (dad perhaps) and it was very interesting to sit back and watch their behaviour from a distance. It was just the other day I was reading (from the Transparent Sea website) that the guys observed a mature humpback teaching it's calf how to leap out of the water. That's exactly the way I'd describe what I saw. Watching through my binoculars, I followed them as they made their way from Shark bay out into the ocean. As they moved in an easterly direction the baby whale was leaping out of the water almost non-stop. Every so often - and seemingly each time the calf didn't breach too well - the mother would leap out, as if to show baby how to do it right. And then the calf would start up again. It was a highly entertaining distration from the so called 'excellent' fishing day. Damn Mouris! *shakes fist* Where: Woody Head, Shark Bay, Clarence Coast, NSW |
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