Today is the first day of winter here in Australia and also the official start of the whale watching season in Port Stephens. To celebrate the start of the season, cruise boat operator Frank Future arranged for a human whale to be formed on the beach at Shoal Bay and it was also photographed from a helicopter. Here is a link to the event and shows a picture of a previous human whale photo in 2010.
You can read the story behind this event in the link above.
This isn’t the best picture in the world, but it has recorded the event today. You may be able to make out the tail of the whale which is on the left of the picture and if you have a good imagination you can see the shape of the whale maybe!
At 12 noon a helicopter flew over taking photos of the event, so I suppose it will be on the local news tonight. I will have to watch and see if I can spot myself. ha ha.
This puts a lump in my throat - it is such a beautiful thought. The whales pass us at Mallacoota but we can only see them through a telescope. The breaching gives them away and we rush to the telescope
Whale watching sounds fantastic. I was lucky enough to see a wale on my visit to the Great Barrier Reef a few years ago, it was a fantastic experience. It waved at us :-)
I have never seen a whale...not too common off our coast. Interesting that you have a whale season.......do they come inshore more in the winter? A lovely idea to welcome them to your shores!
Thanks so much for your lovely comments. The whales go up the east coast of Australia from Antarctica from May onwards to give birth in warmer waters and then back down again around September/October. So we get two bites of the cherry. We are so lucky here that they come close to the shore and it is quite exciting to sit at the surf club café at Birubi and watch whales go by. We do have whale watches too on the boats and you get even closer to them then.
Part of the reason for this human whale photo was not only to mark the start of the whale migration but also to protest about the Japanese whaling continuing after they had assured everyone that they were going to stop their 'experimental' whale killing.
@888rachel Yes the event was on the news, didn't see me though.
@creampuff The parachutists had a great view until the wind dropped and they dropped into the ocean. Hope they didn't have a camera with them.
@lafish Thanks Laurie, it is still pretty warm for this time of year around 20 degrees c or 70 f for you)
@april16@kwind@annied@wanabe@golftragic Thanks so much, it was a fun day. I saw it on the news too Meredith, but I didn't spot either David or myself. No Marnie I wasn't in it I was too busy taking photos.
WOW...that is so cool. I can visualize the whale...thank you for pointing out the details. I think that is such a great thing and hope you get to see lots of whales!! Doesn't look much like winter to me!!! We are in Palm Springs Calif at the moment and it was 108 (f) today! YIKES that's hot even for here this early.
@onewing I forgot to say good on you all for protesting. Japanese perfidy and general disdain for marine conservation is unspeakable arrogance and ignorance. Go, the whales.
June 4th, 2014
Leave a Comment
Sign up for a free account or Sign in to post a comment.
Thanks so much for your lovely comments. The whales go up the east coast of Australia from Antarctica from May onwards to give birth in warmer waters and then back down again around September/October. So we get two bites of the cherry. We are so lucky here that they come close to the shore and it is quite exciting to sit at the surf club café at Birubi and watch whales go by. We do have whale watches too on the boats and you get even closer to them then.
Part of the reason for this human whale photo was not only to mark the start of the whale migration but also to protest about the Japanese whaling continuing after they had assured everyone that they were going to stop their 'experimental' whale killing.
@888rachel Yes the event was on the news, didn't see me though.
@creampuff The parachutists had a great view until the wind dropped and they dropped into the ocean. Hope they didn't have a camera with them.
@lafish Thanks Laurie, it is still pretty warm for this time of year around 20 degrees c or 70 f for you)
@dgrynn Not easy to get the shape from the land.
@kathiecb I was just taking the photos Kathie.