(If you missed it, start from part 1)

Day 2 - Dancing Minkes and Tall Tales of The Sea

Waking up was slightly surreal, the engine was roaring, the boat was rocking – I couldn’t believe it we had been travelling all night – we were now 9 hours away from the mainland. We had arrived at a place called Light House – years of data collection from tourism boats and scientific research has shown that this is the hotspot for Minke whale activity. Expectations were running high – we were all to look out for a fin slicing the surface of the water or that signature blow as the whale exhales a lung full of air into the atmosphere.

11.00am and the doctor shouts Minke! The rope is deployed, I am literally bursting at the seams to jump into the water.

That’s it, I’m in, I move to the end of the rope and then out of the corner of my eye I see it – a minke whale! My heart skips a beat! This is something I have dreamed about since I was a little girl.

And it’s coming closer, I stop still in sheer amazement, this whale is about 6 metres long with at least 6 cookie cutter marks on its back - a sign that these whales are regular visitors of the Coral Sea.

It’s is not long before the whales seem to have called in their comrades to look at the strange spectacle of six humans hanging on a rope. At one point there is up to 10 whales coming at us from every which way – it utterly amazing. After each pass their confidence appears to build and the closer, more magical the encounters are.
I try my best to photograph their left and right flanks for photo-identification and to keep still so others can do the same.

My fingers are shriveled liked prunes from being in the water so long when I start to feel the pinch of the cold – just as I think about heading back in one of the most memorable encounters begins.

In the corner of my eye I see a large whale is powering along, moving using its tail to push its self through the water column and it’s making a bee line right for me! The whale approaches is a metre away - I look up to John Rumney who’s watching from the back of the boat. It’s like in a pantomime, he’s shouting,“it’s behind you!”. “I know,” I shout back, she is quite hard to miss.

Soon she is right beside me, presenting that wonderfully bright white underbelly and spinning on her tail – pirouetting like a ballerina – the trade mark of the one and only balletic Dwarf Minke Whale – Pavlova

To be honest I am so astounded, blown away that the thought of taking a photograph or filming the spectacle is the last thing on my mind, instead it will be forever engraved in my memory. After her little spin, Pavlova (still to be confirmed) exhibits a behaviour termed by Minke Whale biologists as motorboating. A rare behaviour where the ‘whale near horizontal, breaks the water surface and its snout and the upper part of its head is maintained just above the water surface while slowly moving forward.’ She then moves off, but as if unsatisfied with the last encounter she comes back again for another closer look – another belly presentation, another little motor around and off she goes.

I hear cheers from the back of the boat as those that have got out of the water earlier shout with amazement. Richard Fitzpatrick, captures the encounter on camera from aboard the vessel, my heart is pounding and I’m quite dumbfounded about what has just happened. You just can’t help but wonder what’s going on in a whale’s mind when it acts like that, how do they perceive you and what, if anything, was it trying to communicate?

Once again I am reminded just how little we know about the marine environment and its inhabitants, an underwater world of mysteries yet to be solved. Our scientific understanding is certainly growing and technologies to study it are advancing fast, but perhaps not fast enough to fully grasp the extent of how much we are impacting it.

Come evening time we are all exhausted from the days activities, we fill out the data sightings sheet, record all the whale behaviours we had seen and start to revel in each other’s stories and experiences from the marine realm. As always Richard Fitzpatrick keeps us gripped with all the stories of near death experiences he has had as well as fascinating facts about marine life that only someone that lives and breathes the ocean life can experience.

He told us about some of his unique shark encounters and gives us a sneak preview of some of the footage on sharks that he has put together for a new documentary soon to be aired in Australia in October.

9.00pm and I am out for the count – until another day.

(If you missed it, start from part 1)

Day 1 – Dreams Come True

5.00pm – After an all day trip from Sydney to Cairns, and Cairns to Port Douglas – I finally boarded what was to be my home for the next six days – a gorgeous little boat called the Phoenix.

The boat crew were warm and welcoming, including Pete the skipper, Michelle the dive instructor with more qualifications than you could count and Charlie the chef. Soon enough the guests started to arrive, among them was Richard Fitzpatrick – an Emmy nominated filmmaker and world renowned shark scientist along with his sidekick - Dr Dean Miller. Dean, also a marine scientist, has worked with Richard on a number projects, on this trip he was here to film the underwater world of the Minke whale. Then there was of course the wonderful John Rumney - a well-loved raconteur and champion for the environment.

Eagerly anticipating the trip ahead, I sat down to listen to John brief us about the Minke Whales – what to expect and how to follow the Code of Conduct, a key procedure we have to follow to minimize any impact we may have and to ensure a safe encounter with the whales.

Most of the evening I just could not imagine what to expect, I felt like I was going to burst, I was so close to living a lifelong dream.

What was it really going to be like to be that close to such a large mammal and to stare into the eye of animal whose ancestors have been on this earth for millions of years?

Later that evening, in the cool evening breeze, I sat up on the top deck, working with John and Dean to create a rope with a series of tyre inner tubes attached to it. This rope was a requirement of the Code of Conduct, to be deployed from the back of the boat during our swim with the whales and to hold us steady as we took photos of the whales for scientific identification. As we made the ropes, I heard about the fantastic work Dean had done as part of his PHD looking at the tourism value of the Great Barrier Reef and Coral Sea as a dive destination. There is no mistaking that Osprey Reef in the Coral Sea is one magical place and an extraordinary out-of-this-world dive destination.

Continue on to part 4

The Coral Sea is one of the world’s last remaining pristine tropical marine environments, a vast wilderness comprised of diverse habitats that play host to a wide range of our ocean’s top predators including whales, sharks and turtles.

Last month I was fortunate enough to join a team of marine scientists, professional photographers and filmmakers on a boat trip that combined a once in a life time experience – to swim with a whale - with hands on scientific research to help understand the biology, ecology and behaviour of these extra ordinary animals that we still know so little about.

The Coral Sea is located off the north-east coast of Australia and sits adjacent to the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park. While the Coral Sea is biologically unique, many species that inhabit the Great Barrier Reef also inhabit the Coral Sea so there is biological connectivity there.

However, unlike the Great Barrier Reef the Coral Sea is largely unprotected. Science indicates that if we protect an animal on the Great Barrier Reef we need to protect as much of a species range as possible including the Coral Sea.

Both the GBR and the Coral Sea are home to the Dwarf Minke Whale (Balaenoptera acutorostrata), a beautifully patterned baleen whale that can reach up to eight metres long. These magnificent creatures are known to visit the far reaches of the Great Barrier Reef in large numbers between March and November.

As a marine mammal scientist, the trip gave me the opportunity not only to learn more about the animals that I am so passionate about, but also the chance to workshop ideas with marine scientists on what further research needs to be done to find out more about these enigmatic animals.

It’s our job to identify the threats they face and find the best ways to protect them such as a declaration of the Coral Sea as a Marine Protected Area.

Continue on to part 2