Whales and Sharknets
Photo by Fi Clark Photography On September 30, we witnessed a humpback calf caught in the shark nets off Noosa Main Beach and contacted fisheries along with many others. Unfortunately, QLD fisheries were unable to attend until the morning due to conditions and quickly fading light. It was distressing to watch the calf thrashing and…
Identifying whales with Happywhale
Happywhale is an organisation where anyone can send photos of whales and identify them by their unique markings. This enables them to track whales around the globe. They use state-of-the-art image processing algorithms to match whale photos with scientific collections. This newly developed efficiency now makes global whale tracking more possible than ever. Happywhale’s mission…
Humpbacks & High-Rises
Noosa Oceanrider is proud to collaborate with Humpbacks and High-rises for the 2021 humpback whale migration season. Volunteers from Humpbacks and High-rises will be joining Noosa Oceanrider Whale Watching tours to gather data for their program. Humpbacks and High-rises is an NGO based on the Gold Coast, Queensland, Australia. Since 2011 they have been running…
Goodbye whales for 2020
The whales are waving goodbye for 2020. It has been a spectacular season with many close interactions; we look forward to welcoming them back next year in 2021. In the meantime, we will be running our popular, slow and scenic, nature-focused Dolphin Safari.
Whale Watching September
This epic photo was recently taken on board a Noosa Oceanrider tour by local photographer Marissa Knight. September is generally the best whale watching in Noosa as the whales return south with their calves, they stay closer to shore and are generally more playful and active.
Humpback whale behaviour
Whale Watching season has begun so we thought it was time for a refresher on whale behaviour. Experts believe that some behaviours assist with navigation and allow them to communicate with other whales. The following is some theories on common whale behaviours. BREACHING There are many theories why humpback whales breach including to attract other…
Minke whales
Noosa Oceanrider’s guest were treated to a rare sighting of a Minke whale last week breaching. The minke whales which are a black/grey/purple colour, are the second smallest baleen whale after the pygmy right whale. They are between 6.9 m and 8 m in length and the males are smaller than the females. The minke…
The mystery of Migaloo
The famous Migaloo (‘white fella’ in Aboriginal) is a white male humpback whale who was first spotted in 1991 off Byron Bay. When Migaloo was first sighted he was the only known white whale in the world until September 2011. Besides Migaloo, there are only 3-4 other known white whales, making them exceedingly rare. The…