Humpback ‘superpod’ surrounds East Coast fishers' boat
An East Coast retiree was scanning the water from his oceanview home with his pair of binoculars when he spotted them — between 50 and 100 humpback whales. WATCH THE VIDEO >>
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SEEING one humpback whale in the wild is enough of a thrill — being surrounded by nearly a hundred of them was a “never in my wildest dreams” moment for one Tassie man.
East Coast retiree Steve Scott was scanning the water from his oceanview home with his pair of binoculars on Wednesday morning when he spotted them.
“I saw them thrashing and blowing a long way off shore from Eaglehawk Neck, so I called my neighbour who was interested in them and we went out in the boat,” Mr Scott explained.
He was originally on humpback watch after hearing of a ‘superpod’ of 500 whales reportedly heading towards Tasmania from Noumea.
“It was very difficult to estimate how many there were; everywhere you looked we were surrounded.”
He hazards a guess at somewhere between 50 and 100 humpbacks surrounded their boat, 20km east of Eaglehawk Neck with babies, mothers and fathers all swimming south.
“There was just constant blowing, tail slapping, breaching … it was a day and a half!”
As a keen whale watcher, Mr Scott had spotted the odd humpback over the years but “nothing remotely close” to what they saw this week.
“There was some feeding going on as they migrated to Antarctica, with a huge number of shearwater (birds) and almost certainly huge amounts of krill under the surface,” he said.
“They were slowing down, some circled back to get another go at the food but generally heading south … hopefully they stick around for a few more days.”
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