REMEMBER WHEN

GOLD COAST BULLETIN Tuesday, June 20, 2006

A WHALE made the Southport Seaway its playground for more than three hours, delighting bystanders with a free whale watching experience, before heading back out to sea.

Whale watching experts were concerned it could have been sick, and others thought it was finding a place to rest or to give birth.

The large humpback drifted slowly up and down the southern wall of the Seaway, at times only 5m from the raised rocky bank where more than 100 onlookers had gathered.

It was the second whale spotted in the Southport Seaway in a month.

The whale entered the Seaway about 11.30am. It was first spotted by The Gold Coast Bulletin boating editor Kevan Wolfe who alerted authorities.

The whale may have mistaken the black bottom of his boat for another whale, said Wolfe.

“We watched it for a little while and stopped the boat and as we sat there it came to the boat, to about two feet way, and was just looking at us with almost soulful eyes,’’ he said.

“I think it may have been sick.”

A Maritime Safety Queensland boat, which was already in the area, kept watch on the whale.

Sea World’s marine services was notified but did not attend because the whale was not thought to have been in any distress.

Jeff Wemyss, from Coast Guard Southport, said the whale looked disoriented. At times it was drifting backwards.

“It’s created quite a spectacle. This is fairly rare that they come into the Seaway, into the Broadwater,” he said.