Curious

Curious

Last week I had the once in a lifetime opportunity to snorkel with Dwarf Minke Whales at Lighthouse Bommie on the Great Barrier Reef. It was AMAZING!!

You hang off a rope on the back of the boat & if you’re quiet & calm these creatures come to check you out. They get within 1-2m of you & they are between 4-6m long. They swim past, look you in the eye, sometime give you a belly roll…..just fantastic!

Not much is known about them, like where they’ve been or where they go but they always seem to turn up at this place at this time. All the photos we took were donated to the James Cook Uni’s research team as they are working on understanding more about these wonderful creatures.

Each whale has unique patterns on it’s fins & sides, which are even different on its left & right side, so the researchers are building up a database to id which whales come back. And all those small white scars on its back are from the ‘Cookie Cutter Shark’ which lives out in the ocean and has a circular hinged jaw which latches onto the whale and takes out a chunk of blubber – yuck!

Here’s the project’s website for more info Minke Whale Project

It was truly a wonderful wonderful experience.

Curious belongs to the following groups:

Animal Kingdom, Dolphins & Whales, Underwater & Sealife and Underwater Photographer's Guild