INSIDE THE BUGLE 1-14 June
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n so a e Magical: S A OF NATURAL WONDERS The whale watching season has begun, a ripple of excitement moving up the coast as enthusiasts perch on headlands to watch and record one of the world’s greatest natural wonders. Humpback whales were hunted almost to extinction during the 1800s and well into the 1900s, before killing them was outlawed in 1978. Their numbers were variously estimated to have crashed to as low as 250 individuals, and have now dramatically recovered, with current estimates placing their population at around 40,000.
At up to 10,000 kilometres, the whale migration route is believed to have evolved over a period of 55 million years as food sources drifted apart. Whale watching tours have just begun out of both Jervis Bay and Shellharbour Marina. Keen whale watchers, cameras in hand, have already begun appearing on various headlands, including at the Kiama Blowhole, Minnamurra, Bass Point and Bushrangers Bay.
Anthony Crampton, 76, a retired fisherman, regularly described as a “whale tragic” and highly respected amongst the whale watching community, has been out on the headlands photographing the whales virtually every day during the season since 2011. “I am at a loss to explain it, they are just magical,” he says. “It is their effort to survive.
There’s thousands of people right up the coast watching for them, all crazies like me. There have been sightings the last three weeks, just one or two, but a few days ago they fired up.” Whale watching websites, most particularly the Shellharbour Whale and Wildlife Spotting group on Facebook, have lit up with remarkable im-
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ages, including spectacular drone footage of whales swimming with schools of dolphins. The whale watching season extends from May to November as the behemoths travel up from the Antarctic to their breeding grounds off the Queensland coast, and then follow the
same route back with their new born calves. There are no reliable statistics, but it is estimated that more than 1.5 million Australians will go whale watching this season. Why not be one of them? If nothing else, these majestic animals stir the mystic in us all.
John Stapleton
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