Mornington
Features inside HOME & GARDEN
‘Guiding your computing experience’
PAGE 30
Over 20 Years IT Experience
FOOD & ENTERTAINMENT
PAGES 31–33
Services for Home and Business Fast Friendly Service Tailored to Suit the Customer’s Needs
SPORTS DESK
star.computers@internode.on.net
PAGES 34–35
M: 0418 882 849
Local news for local people
Your fortnightly community newspaper incorporating Mornington, Mount Martha and Mount Eliza For all your advertising and editorial needs, call us on 1300
F: 03 5977 3192
FREE
25 August – 7 September 2011
MPNEWS (1300 676 397) or email: team@mpnews.com.au www.mpnews.com.au
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
FREE
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-
Live the lifestyle you deserve Shearwater Serviced Apartments
STIHL CHAINSAW ESSENTIALS KIT
1099
$
Would you like to live in a secure environment in a beautiful garden setting with your meals provided, your serviced apartment professionally cleaned and 24 hour emergency assistance? Then come to Shearwater Apartments at “The Mornington Retirement Village”
RE
TIR
EMENT VILLA
GE
150 Mornington Tyabb Rd, Mornington Mel. 145 J4 For enquiries & inspections phone Bruni 5970 5507 or 0438 582 519
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
Solar Powering the Peninsula
Book a free home visit Find out how much you can save with solar Govt. Rebates Availab le
Ph 1300 013 648
www.homegreen.com.au
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