Swim with Whales
Winter, although cold, is my favourite time of year to spend around the ocean. The sky is blue, the air is crisp and the waves are clean. In our little sliver of paradise when you submerge yourself during this time of year there is something else, there’s a song. When you look up there is also something exciting and playful in the air, big splashes fill up the horizon.
It’s whale season!
The very first time I saw a humpback whale I was only 8 years old. We were out snorkelling with the family on the island of Curacao in the Caribbean where I grew up on for some of my youth. I was trying to stay under water for as long as I could pretending to be apart of the fishies, I suppose this is where my love for free diving came from, when I came up my mother was standing on the beach shouting “TURN AROUND, TURN AROUND!” When I did as my mother told me to, I could not believe what I saw! It was a humpback whale, I never felt so small in my life. I quickly swam towards shore and ran out of the water to climb onto the cliff next to the beach so that I could get a better view of this massive and beautiful animal. I say cliff but it may have just been a big rock but to 8 year old me it was a cliff. From that moment I knew that what ever I was going to do when I grew up it had to involve the ocean. Preferably a humpback whale veterinarian but there unfortunately wasn’t really a market for that.
Roughly 6 years ago is when I got to see my first humpback whale under water, I was out on a whale swimming trip in Mooloolaba, Australia, We had an extremely curious baby whale come and say hi, her mum swiftly came up to steer her away a little from us before she got too close. We all stayed in the one spot has mum and baby had a good look at us, shortly after they moved on and continued on their journey up the coast. When they had left us cheers erupted in the water as non of us could believe what we had just experienced. The 8 year old in me at that point still wishes there was a market for humpback whale veterinarians but I settled for working on dive boats and whale watching boats instead.
My name is Nadja, I am the vessel manager and main captain for the Pressure Project in the Sunshine Coast, Australia. In winter we have the honour of running swim with humpback whale tours, this is my 3rd season behind the wheel of a whale swim vessel and I absolutely adore it. When we do spot a whale I am generally the most excited person on board and you would probably be able to hear my squeals coming from the boat while you are in the water. There is something so incredibly special about coming eye to eye with a whale, they are such intelligent beings and when you are lucky enough to have a close encounter you can see them looking at you, checking you out and thinking ‘What are you’? Sometimes you actually get to lock eyes with a whale and that just humbles you on a whole other level.
Personally, my absolute favourite thing to witness is when a mother is teaching her baby different behaviours such as breaches and tails slaps. Humpback calves are quite clumsy when they are young so watching them try and do what mum has perfected over the years is very funny and heart warming.
I hope that one day you get to experience this magic if you haven’t yet already and if this blog left you feeling a little inspired,
I look forward to having you on board.
