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THE BUGLE APP
A whale of a season
Local secrets for spotting ocean giants p3
Photo: Supplied by Shellharbour Wild
Maria Lewis
T
here couldn’t be a better time to be a whale watcher, with experts predicting one of the busiest and biggest whale seasons in recent memory. With the whale population “exploding”, the traffic is
fin-to-fin on the humpback highway as the annual journey from Antarctica to North Queensland begins. “The whale season has already been phenomenal,” said Sonia Tooley, a spokesperson for several of the major whale watching operations such as Jervis Bay Wild, Shellharbor Wild,
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Batemans Bay Wild, Whale Fun and Sydney Whale Whisperer. “We’ve had really, large powerful whales and really, large powerful breaching whales which has been incredible for passengers to see onboard. “We’ve also started to see some newborn whales coming
up, so that’s quite early to have newborn bubs. “I think it’s due to the massive increase in the population of whales. It’s exploding.” Having operated in the area for over 30 years, Tooley said the “sheer numbers” – especially in the last 15 years have seen whales pushing into
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depot The dad putting Budget rezoned bodysurfing breakdown South Coast cashflow on the map
areas they’ve rarely been seen before. “A lot more whales are coming into Jervis Bay and areas in the past where - yes, they may have occasionally come in before - but not in these numbers. “We’re seeing a lot more in closer and inside the bay, a lot more than normal.”
What Tooley is seeing anecdotally on the seas matches with what Bond University’s Associate Professor of Environmental Science Dr Daryl McPhee is seeing in the data, with population size growing “much quicker than the modelling suggested” once they became protected.
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