Welcome to Whale Spotter

Whale Spotter acknowledges and pays our deepest respects to the Elders, past, present and future of the Indigenous Peoples of Australia and New Zealand. We thank our Indigenous brothers and sisters for all their care of our lands and oceans through countless generations. This land and ocean has always been and will always be theirs. People’s […]

“Everybody needs beauty as well as bread, places to play in and pray in, where nature may heal and give strength to body and soul.” – John Muir Tranquility soaks into your tried bones in the cool, deep, silent embrace of Akaroa Harbour. Misty rain swirls around the hills and a rainbow simmers in the golden morning […]

The Kaikoura Earthquake Just after midnight on November 14th, 2017 the Kaikoura area suffered a severe 7.8 magnitude earthquake. The earthquake started about 60 kilometres south-west of Kaikoura near the town of Culverden and spread from fault to fault along a 150 km length of the northeast coast of the South Island. Extensive damage was done to buildings, […]

There are perfect days and then there are the ones you can wait a lifetime for! I was very lucky to find myself again at Port Stephens on a classic late spring day, calm, warm and with beautiful clear blues skies. Magic! Today I’m heading out with Imagine Cruises in the hope of seeing some […]

The Humpback southern migration is in full swing down the NSW Coast and it’s definitely time to escape the big city! So off to beautiful Port  Stephens a few hours drive north of Sydney with some friends to join Moonshadow Cruises to go whale watching.  September and October are by far my favourite whale watching months of […]

Jenni does her best Starsky and Hutch slide across the bonnet of her car, camera held high! Well ok not really but we’re having great fun racing around the shores of Adelaide’s Port River hoping to catch a glimpse of the locals. I’m hanging out with Jenni, Trudy, Maryann and some of the other fantastic […]

As a child three stories had a profound effect on me, Ring of Bright Water, Born Free and Storm Boy. They instilled in me a great love and concern for all of nature and animals. Maybe it’s one of the reasons why I run Whale Spotter now? Storm Boy is set along the wild and lonely coast of South […]

“The mind is not a vessel to be filled but a fire to be lighted!” – Plutarch The early morning is cold, crisp but beautifully clear. The tiniest sliver of a present moon hangs in the eastern sky just above the deep orange of the coming dawn. I marvel at this glorious day thankful to […]

On the coldest day so far this year I joined teams from ORRCA and NSW Parks & Wildlife on a very windblown North Head at the entrance to Sydney Harbour to count the annual Humpback Migration. I also invited Nikon Australia to come along and enjoy some whale watching with us. Overnight temperatures had dropped to […]

Walter, Wolowitz and Me I love the ongoing saga of Howard “Froot Loops” Wolowitz becoming a NASA Astronaut on the comedy series The Big Bang Theory. In very much a Walter Mitty way he loves the idea of being the heroic astronaut, wearing the jacket and all, but he is scared to death of actually doing it. […]

Sometimes, just like a shooting star someone lights up our world and lives. They make us turn our face to the heavens and make us delight in all the good and beauty of this world. Just like the shooting star they are all too often gone before we really have time to fully comprehend just […]

“l paint what cannot be photographed, and l photograph what cannot be painted!” – May Ray Oh to be able to paint and draw! I’m spellbound when I see magnificent art. Its probably not that surprising that I love photo realistic style. Natural History Illustration – University of Newcastle Over the past four years I’ve collaborated […]

———————————————- UPDATE: Kaikoura Earthquake November 2016 Our thoughts, best wishes and prayers are with everyone affected by the earthquakes that struck the northern areas of New Zealand’s South Island. Please know that you have many friends around the world who are standing with you through this very tough time. We are all looking forward to […]

———————————————- UPDATE: Kaikoura Earthquake November 2016 Our thoughts, best wishes and prayers are with everyone affected by the earthquakes that struck the northern areas of New Zealand’s South Island. Please know that you have many friends around the world who are standing with you through this very tough time. We are all looking forward to […]

Imagine oceans just full of whales…  Disaster on and Industrial Scale Its hard to believe that only a few hundred years ago the oceans where quite literally teaming with life. Since then totally unsustainable fishing practices have wiped out an estimated 90% of fish stocks meaning that by mid this century we face the total collapses of […]

The Whale Dreamers Festival is by far my favourite, amazing people, location and whales! I mean what more could you ask for? This is the 10th and very sadly possibly the last Whale Dreamers Festival. For the first time Whale Spotter had its own stand which was fantastic but didn’t allow too much opportunities for photos. […]

I’m delighted to have been asked by Living Ocean to assist their Humpback Migration Research Program as an observer/photographer.  “Think locally and act locally!” – Dr Jane Goodall Living Ocean In 2010 Kim Hubner was horrified by the continued killing of whales in the Southern Ocean. Passionately wanting to do something positive she along with her husband […]

Journeys and Dreams “A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.” Lao-tzu 604 – 531 BC It’s the strangest thing after a lifetime of dreaming and over a year of planning to be actually doing the very thing you’ve dreamt of since childhood. Many, many times as I lay there on the […]

The Tongan Fluke Collective (TFC) aims to build a catalogue of tail fluke ID images of the Humpback whales visiting the Kingdom of Tonga during the breeding and calving season (July – October) to help scientists build a better understanding of their numbers and distribution. Unfortunately the Tongan population of humpback whales are making a much […]

It’s actually very horrific when you realise how the Right Whales got their name …they were the ‘right’ whale to catch!  The original method of whaling was called Bay Whaling, people would see a whale near to shore in the bays and rivers and simply paddle out in open boats to kill them. Most prized were […]

A perfect day! Sunday 6th July dawned to another stunningly beautiful winters day. Calm, warm, blue skies, a delight. Not sure how the team do it but I’m definitely not going to argue with the magic. Its become my favourite whale event of the year.  The Humpbacks are often kilometres out to sea as they migrate past Sydney […]

This whale season Whale Spotter in partnership with ORRCA and NSW Parks and Wildlife are delighted to be going whale watching at North Head. Come and join the fun and learn how to spot the whales, work out which species they are and what they’re up to as they migrate past Sydney.   Event Details […]

Imagine yourself snorkelling in beautiful cool waters. Watching the late afternoon light play on the waters surface and into the deep below. Then suddenly something big nudges you in the side! What happened next changed Bryant Austin’s life forever… “I turned to see what had touched me and found myself eye to eye with a Humpback […]

Born free, as free as the wind blows As free as the grass grows Born free to follow your heart Live free and beauty surrounds you The world still astounds you Each time you look at a star Stay free where no walls divide you You’re free as the roaring tide So there’s no need […]

———————————————- UPDATE: Kaikoura Earthquake November 2016 Our thoughts, best wishes and prayers are with everyone affected by the earthquakes that struck the northern areas of New Zealand’s South Island. Please know that you have many friends around the world who are standing with you through this very tough time. We are all looking forward to […]

There are few places as beautiful and romantic as Akaroa. One of the best places to see Hector’s Dolphins is in Akaroa Harbour on the South Island of New Zealand. The beautiful town of Akaroa is about an hour and half’s drive south of Christchurch out on the Banks Peninsular. Hectors The Hector’s Dolphin (Cephalorhynchus hectori) […]

———————————————- UPDATE: Kaikoura Earthquake November 2016 Our thoughts, best wishes and prayers are with everyone affected by the earthquakes that struck the northern areas of New Zealand’s South Island. Please know that you have many friends around the world who are standing with you through this very tough time. We are all looking forward to […]

“When the earth is ravaged and the animals are dying, a new tribe of people shall come unto the earth from many colours, classes, creeds, and who by their actions and deeds shall make the earth green again. They will be known as the warriors of the Rainbow”  — North American Cree Indian Prophecy Greenpeace […]

“All of my life I have been afraid of only one thing – and that is of doing nothing. I have never been able to fathom the idea of accepting the way things are. We humans are killing our oceans, we are diminishing bio-diversity, we are over heating the planet, and we are pouring poisons […]

 I think I can safely say that yesterdays whale watching was the best I’ve ever experienced in five years here in Sydney. I spent the day with Sydney Fast Ferries new whale watching tours. We headed north from the heads about 10am. It seemed to be one very big and empty ocean for the longest […]

Its thirty years since Greenpeace’s first direct action campaign in Australia to end whaling. Chris Pash’s book the Last Whale beautifully captures the passion on both sides of the argument as we follow the high drama off the Western Australian coast, as protesters risk their lives to protect the Sperm whales from continued slaughter. Given […]

I was very interested in Dr Susan Bengtson Nash study of persistent organic pollutants such as organochlorine pesticides like DDT, or industrial chemicals like PCBs and dioxins in the Antarctic food chain. The study looked at the levels of these pollutants in Krill and how they accumulate in animals higher up the food chain such as whales. […]