August 25th 2011

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Mornington

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Playtime: Whales break the surface off Mt Martha on Saturday 13 August. Photo by Sue Mason of the Dolphin Research Institute

Whales in bay for play, not stay By Keith Platt WHEN a pod of teenage whales put on a show off Mt Martha, some audience members put themselves in line for a fine. Although strict rules apply, some boats carrying sightseers were filmed getting too close as the humpbacks began rising to the occasion. Researchers from the Hastings-based Dolphin Research Institute were out on Port Phillip “surveying common dolphins when the big fats ones took

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over”, executive director Jeff Weir said. “The photo shows three humpback whales together, one being very aggressive. “If a little boat got near them it would be demolished. “The aggressive behaviour seen with these animals has not been recorded before and considering the animals’ 40-tonne size, in made it extremely dangerous for vessels to get too close.” Mr Weir said Department of Sustain-

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ability and Environment officers were likely to prosecute “or at least make a phone call to the owners of several boats which went within 200 metres of the whales”. He said jet skis must stay at least 300m away from whales. “Some boats were repeatedly going too close and deliberately went within 10 metres of the whales time after time after time,” he said. “Our researchers filmed them, although most people on boats usually do the right thing.”

Mr Weir said the whales sighted off Mt Martha on two consecutive weekends would not go as far north as mature breeding whales. The whales were unlikely to come into Port Phillip to feed, although they would take fish “opportunistically if they swim through a really tight school”. “Unlike dolphins, which go wherever the food is, whales feed up in the Antarctic during summer. “There’s been one observation of a

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whale feeding in the bay, but generally they don’t feed for long periods when migrating north.” Mr Weir said the whales in Port Phillip were “only biding their time before heading south; they’ll be gone by October”. “It’s fairly new seeing them here in early winter, but it may be because their numbers are picking up well.” Continued Page 7


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