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A duo in a tandem sit-on-top kayak were in for a breathtaking moment as a mother and calf humpback whale swam right up to their kayak on Byron Bay in Australia.
Curious Whales Swim Up To Curious Kayakers In Australia
To say the pair of whales passed by the pair of kayakers would be an understatement. As you can see in this drone video published by Isabella Dobozy, the calf inquisitive swims toward the kayak, before turning away with a lunge of its tail right beneath the boat.
In a story published with the Miami Herald, Dobozy told McClatchy News (Which owns the Herald), “The kayakers were in one spot about (500 to 600 feet) from shore when these whales approached them,” She adds. “They swam past the kayakers but circled back to have another look at them.”
According to the Miami Herald, some comments on the video were concerned for the kayakers as well as whether their activity was legal. Dobozky shares that from her observation, the whales swam toward the paddlers and were not pursued. According to the Australian Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water Regulations, vessels must not deliberately approach whales closer than 100 meters. And touching or feeding of whales or dolphins is prohibited.
If you’ve followed our continual whale meets paddler posts, you probably already know interactions between these magnificent cetaceans and floating humans are nothing out of the ordinary in Byron Bay. Still, for the people there in the moment, and internet viewers around the globe, a paddler and whale sharing the ocean never ceases to astonish.
Byron Bay: A Whale Watching Hotspot For Paddlers
Just why are there so many interactions between paddlers and whales on this beautiful blue stretch of the Pacific?
Byron Bay sits at the most eastern point of Australia. Being such, it’s located along an oceanic route known as the “Humpback Highway.” Each April, tens of thousands of humpback whales and other marine mammals migrate from Antarctica to warmer waters for calving season.
The whales will linger in warmer waters like Byron Bay until they head south again in November. This makes Byron Bay a prime destination for whale watching for half the year and a reason many paddlers head to the water for a chance encounter, like the pair in Dobozy’s video.
