The ‘wrong way’ whale
I saw my first whale of the season this morning, but it was going the wrong way!
Instead of heading north like they’re supposed to at this time of year, this whale was going south.
I first spotted it from the Lighthouse carpark in East Ballina.
Then I drove down to North Wall and watched as it continued on its way past the South Wall.
According to the Oceania Project, each year several southern humpback whale groups leave their feeding grounds in the Antarctic to begin their epic voyage of approximately 10,000km. One of the groups travel up along the eastern seaboard of Australia, passing Ballina on their way to their birthing and mating grounds in the subtropical waters of the Great Barrier Reef beyond Hervey Bay.
“At birth humpback whale calves have little body fat and would not survive in the icy waters of the Antarctic; hence the annual return to the warm waters of the Great Barrier Reef for birthing and mating,” the Oceania Project website says.
Can anyone out there explain why this whale was heading south?
