Whale Watching in Hervey Bay
Nano, Benz and Adinda, September 2002 
One of the places I went for my holiday is a place called Hervey Bay. Hervey bay is located on the coast near Sunshine Coast, Queensland. It is famous for the humpback whales that annually migrate between icy water of Antarctica to the warm water of Queensland. Late July to November are whale watching season in Hervey Bay, plenty of tourist came to Hervey Bay to see the big creature that roam the sea. Our cabin is just near the marina, so we just have to walk to the pier to go aboard the boat. There are lots of boats in the marina; some of the boat is bigger than our boat. They are mostly cruise ship for whale watching. You can choose different type of whale watching, a half day cruise (about 4 hours), dawn cruise or a full day cruise (about 6 hours). We decided to go on full day cruise. Usually with full day cruise they serve lunch, morning tea and afternoon tea. Sometimes they also sell snacks. Our ship was called “Jerry Bailey”. The boat that we ride was a 20m catamaran with 2 floor decks. The top deck is where they sell foods, drinks and souvenirs and also you can have a good view out to the sea on the top deck. It cost around $200 for one family with 2 kids to go whale watching. The crew greeted us aboard the ship and a photographer took a group photo of us.
We depart from the Urangan boat harbour at 9:30. It was quite chilly and windy that day and I am glad that mom makes us to bring our jumper. We sail past Fraser Island, a big island where people some time camp there. The ship has to go for about 45 minutes around Platypus bay before we eventually saw a sign of whale. I was really excited to see some whales because it was my first time to see it. At first we only see the tail and the body of the whale. The captain of the ship told the entire passenger every thing about the whales. He told us to look for blow from the whales. It is a not water but some kind of vapour that sprayed out from the hole of its head. He also told us where to look if there is a whale near our boat. Every time there is whale near the boat, we quickly stood in the rail and look for it. Sometimes the boat has to turn around so we can get a closer look of the whale. After a while we eventually saw a whale appeared wholly in the surface and fell to the water again. We saw mother and the baby whales. They played near our boat nearly half an hour. The boat has to stay far away from the whales, around 100m. But sometimes the whales come too near the boat and the captain has to stop the boat until the whales go away. He also warned us to prepare ourselves because when the boat is too near the whales, it will rock. The movement of the boat makes me and my mum seasick. The boat crew gave us some bread to eat to makes us better.
The whale is a mammal that means they can get pregnant and don’t lay egg and give milk to the babies. They are the biggest mammal in the world apart from elephants. The whales that we saw on Hervey Bay were called the “Humpback Whale”. They are the fifth largest animal that live on earth and can grow into 16 m long and weight up to 45 tonnes. Before migrating south to Antarctic waters, many whales are stopping for a period of time in Hervey Bay. In Hervey Bays water there are also dugong, turtle and dolphins, however we didn’t see it.
At lunch time, the boat stops for about ½ hour near Fraser Island so we can eat our lunch without the rocking movement of the boat. After awhile, the kids became bored so the crew gave us kid activities like colouring pictures or playing card. On the way back to marina I play cards games with other kids. I was really glad because I stopped having seasick before the boat reach the marina around 4 o’clock.
When we get to the marina our picture which was taken earlier is already printed so we bought the picture as a reminder of our cruise. We also bought some of the whale pictures at the photo shop and some key rings with whale pictures on it. It was really a long journey that makes me tired. However, I have so much fun looking at the whales.
Benz Ramadin/September 2002
posted by Mirza Kusrini @ 4:02 PM
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