CRUISEof a Time
Whale
The waters off the coast of Sydney fall on the route of
an epic journey. Sumeet Keswani goes on a cruise to see
humpback whales as they make their annual migration
to the Pacific, and finds a sea of surprises waiting.SUMEET KESWANI90 travelandleisureindia.in
The tail fin of a
humpback whale
emerges from
the water,
indicating the start
of a deep dive.FROM THE MOMENT I SET foot in New South
Wales this June, my desire to see migrating
whales off its coast appeared cursed. First,
the timings of a domestic flight from
Newcastle Airport to Sydney got in the way,
thus canning my plans to go on a whale-
spotting cruise from d’Albora Marina in
Port Stephens. Next, a storm hit Sydney,
bringing ample downpour and rough seas
and cancelling my scheduled cruise from
Sydney’s Circular Quay—an improvisation
on the earlier plan. Determined to
overcome both, natural and man-made
obstacles, I tried again, this time booking a
bigger vessel of Whale Watching Sydney
that could withstand choppy waters. The
storm abated just in time for my early
morning departure from Darling Harbour,
and I could tell that something truly
remarkable was on the cards.Around 45 species of whales, dolphins, and porpoises
are found in Australian waters. The most common
whale here and the one my cruise intended to find was
the humpback. While it’d always been one of my
favourite marine mammals, I’d never seen one in real
life. Humpback whales spend their summers in
Antarctica feeding on mostly krill (also, plankton and
small fish), and migrate to the warmer tropical waters of
the Pacific in late autumn to breed and rear their calves.
This is a necessity as the calves are born without the
abundant blubber that adults possess under their skin
for thermal insulation. The whales return south in
spring, ravenous from months of fasting.
On an average, the humpback whale ends up
journeying 5,000 kilometres across the world’s oceans.
“It is the longest walk from the bedroom to the
kitchen,” jokes the skipper of our boat, as we wait for a
pod to surface. The eagle-eyed crew has spotted bushy
spouts of water vapour, typically the first thing to watch
out for when whale-spotting. But the whales seem to