Ningaloo
Western Australia is trialling interactive experiences with humpback whales in pristine waters off the north-west coast
Ningaloo Reef, the pristine 270km-long fringing coral reef off Western Australia’s northern coast, is synonymous with swimming with whale sharks — but there’s a new mammal on the block.
Earlier this year the WA Government granted permits for operators at beachside Coral Bay and nearby Exmouth to trial interactive experiences that put mask and snorkel-clad visitors face-to-face with humpback whales.
Mooloolaba in Queensland and Tonga in the South Pacific are the only other places where nature buffs can swim with humpbacks.
The WA trial runs until November 30 and, if authorities and tour operators deem it a success, swimming with humpbacks up to 15m long will become a must-do for those holidaying at Exmouth, a two-hour flight or 13hour drive north of Perth.
Escape joined Coral Bay Ecotours aboard their 14m power cat Kai Aura to get up close to the migrating whales, which use World Heritage-listed Ningaloo Marine Park as a pit stop on their journey north to the Kimberley and south to the feeding grounds of Antarctica.
CHOOSE YOUR WHALE
There are strict rules for swimming with humpbacks and, to minimise any impact on the animals, snorkellers are not put into the water if a mother is accompanied by a calf. Likewise, whales that breaching or tail and fin slapping are viewed from the safe confines of the boat, not the water. “Their pectoral fins can be five metres long and weigh a tonne, so we choose the whales we interact with very carefully,” our skipper Steve Wheeler says.
Vessels must not come within 50m to the side or 150m in front of a whale, ensuring the animals are not harassed. After spotting several mothers with calves, Wheeler finds a solitary animal with the help of a spotter plane. “It’s really up to the whale if it wants to swim with us, not the other way around,” he says. “Some are definitely on the move and others will come and play around.”
It seems a little bit nuts to jump over the side of a perfectly good boat when our first deployment happens about 3km from shore in 70m of deep, clear iridescent water. A few of our group admit to nerves about sharks, but Wheeler’s wife and our dive guide Prue says that Ningaloo’s sharks are so well fed on snapper they don’t bat an eyelid at snorkellers.
In the dozen trial trips before our expedition, Coral Bay Ecotours has managed to get swimmers into the water with a whale every time. But the whales don’t always play ball, swimming right or left or diving deep. Despite several attempts with two different whales, we don’t make it into the water, but we’re still treated to close encounters from the boat with at least 10 different whales. With an estimated 30,000 whales now plying the WA coast — up from less than 1000 in the 1970s — the animals are here in abundance.
SNORKELLING SERENITY
There are plenty of other chances for close encounters with Coral Bay Ecotours. The day starts with a gentle snorkel in the shallow, coral-rich waters on the 2km-wide lagoon created between Ningaloo Reef and the mainland. Water temperatures can reach a balmy 27C. An inquisitive turtle rises from a patch of sand to ogle me through my mask, surrounded by snapper, pastel-painted parrot fish, torpedo-like barracuda, stretched-out flute fish and a shy wobbegong shark sheltering in an undersea cave. Later as we head to a sheltered reef for lunch, a pod of 20 or so energetic spinner dolphins ride our bow wave, leaping into the air and darting left and right with lithe, graceful movements.
The highlight of the day comes when we drift into the local “shark cleaning station”. Here, no less than 10 grey and white-tipped reef sharks swim below us, taking turns hovering vertically in the water column over a chuck of cabbage coral the size of a minibus.
MAYBE A MANTA WILL DO
So we didn’t hit the jackpot and swim with humpbacks but the next day we return to the water with Frazer McGregor, a marine ecologist with a PhD in manta ray ecology. He’s also a veteran skipper who runs Ningaloo Marine Interactions, specialising in snorkelling with manta rays aboard his 11m vessel Utopia. “On average we see about six rays but we can get up to 100 if they’re congregating to feed on concentrations of plankton,” McGregor says.
With a spotter plane once again in air, we soon track down our first ray. It dives into the depths but when we find a second ray soon after, this animal is more inquisitive about its human visitors. The barbless, pelagic ray has a wingspan of about 3m (though some can reach 6m) and appears to fly through the immaculately clear water. As I flipper along on the surface, keeping pace and looking down, the manta rolls on to its back, exposing its white belly and the four large remora fish that are sheltering under it. A manta’s eyes are on the side of its protruding lobes, and it must roll on its back to see what’s on the surface.
During a second snorkel, I drop down about 2m to the white-sand floor of the lagoon and gaze into the eyes of an ancient-looking loggerhead turtle as it leisurely crunches its way through a lunch of starfish.
I came to Ningaloo Reef to swim with humpbacks, but I will go home just as happy after my brush with a majestic manta ray, playful dolphins and inquisitive turtles in one of the world’s true wilderness areas.