Waterspout spotted by charter boat group off coast of Hervey Bay
A rare waterspout has been spotted by a group in a charter boat in the normally calm waters off Hervey Bay.
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A group on a tour of the waters off Hervey Bay got more than they bargained for when a waterspout was spotted in the main channel west of Pelican Banks on Monday morning.
Peter Lynch from Blue Dolphin Marine Tours said the waterspout had been spotted about one nautical mile away from his vessel.
He had been taking a charter group out on the usually calm waters of Hervey Bay and they were about 10 minutes into their journey when the waterspout was seen.
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Mr Lynch said after 26 years of doing tours around the waters off Hervey Bay, it was a rare sighting and it was only the second or third waterspout he had seen in that time.
He said the group wasn’t close enough to the waterspout to be concerned about it.
“But we could see the swirls and the water being sucked up off the surface of the water,” he said.
“It was a nice surprise and I’m glad we weren’t too close.
“It was cool to see something nature offers like that.”
Mr Lynch said the wet and windy weather had been tough for the entire marine industry over the past week, with strong northerly winds keeping many boats in the harbour.
It come as parts of southeast Queensland were on flood watch as the first day of 2024 as some regions faced more than 200mm of rainfall.
A severe weather warning is in place and multiple evacuations and rescues have been carried out, after more than 500mm of rain fell on parts of the Gold Coast.
As of noon on Monday, the State Emergency Service had received just over 460 calls in the previous 24 hours, most of which were in areas experiencing heavy rainfall and flash flooding.
A total of 340 of those calls were in the Gold Coast Council areas, 40 in the Scenic Rim, 20 in Redland and 10 in Logan.
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Originally published as Waterspout spotted by charter boat group off coast of Hervey Bay
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