Minke Whales of the Great Barrier Reef – July 2022
I have been fortunate to have swum with the Humpbacks in Tonga so the Minke Whales (the smallest of the great whales) was a trip that I always wanted to experience. Spending 5 days onboard the magnificent Mike Balls’s Spoilsport and experiencing the Minke Whales was an incredible experience. The second smallest of the great whales, they are both inquisitive and playful allowing for very personal interactions. As a pre-cursor to the trip, about half the group joined us on a day trip the Etty’s Bay to see the Cassowary (Casuarius casuarius) in its natural habitat. These pre-historic birds are only endemic to Australia and New Guinea.
The Minke whale (Balaenoptera acutorostrata) is part of the baleen family of whales. The minke’s were first described by Danish naturalist Otto Fabricius in 1780. The Minke Whales generally live for between 30-50 years but have been known to live as long as 60. Males are generally about 8,5 metres in length and females around 8.9 metres. The major predators of the Minke whale are the Killer Whale.
The expedition started and ended in Cairns. Most people flying into Cairns on 29th June. We chartered a 20 seater bus for the day trip to see the Cassowaries. After this the trip was based on Mike Balls’ Spoilsport – an ultra-stable 30m Catamaran that easily catered for our group of 22 in comfort. Mike Ball also offered free transport to the airport or hotels on disembarkation and return flight from Lizard Island.
As with all dive trips that require a flight, luggage weights (especially if you have some camera equipment I travel with a Canon R6 with a few lenses as well as a Canon g15 with Ikelite hosing) are always a challenge. But we got there all safe and checked into a local hotel. Most of our adventurers arrived and enjoyed a quiet dinner.
The next day, it was off for a site seeing day to see the Cassowaries and some amazing sites n the Atherton tablelands. On entering Etty’s, we encountered a family and were fortunate to be able to watch ‘family” behaviour for almost 30 mins. The Cassowary mums tend to be a little grumpy and you do need to take care. The das take care of the Children. Next was the Millaa Millaa falls at 18m high they were spectacular. Last stop on the way back to Cairns was the amazing Curtain Fig (Ficus macrocarpa). Getting back to Cairns late afternoon for an early dinner before boarding Spoil Sport.
After a good overnight cruise to the Ribbon reefs we spent the next three days diving and swimming with the Minke Whales. We visited some phenomenal sites including Flare point, Steves Bommie, Coral Kingdom and of course Cod hole. The whale encounters started on day 1 and continued for the entire trip. We were lucky to have up to 10 whales with us for up to an hours at a time. They are curious and playful. A number of divers were lucky to see them while on Scuba. They generally do not like to noise. With a great mixture of swimming with the whales (holding on to buoy lines and floating with these amazing creatures) and Scuba diving. We even had the fortune to have a few night dives and a great sighting of a Bull shark.
Spoilsport offers a fully inclusive board with all means and wine available with meals. The food was both plentiful and wonderful. As the weather (wind) kicked up on the last day, we headed to the shelter of lizard island for our farewell BBQ on board. A great night to end a memorable trip. The next morning, we headed to the Airport for an incredible low level flight back to Cairns.
Accommodation on Spoilsport is very comfortable which also accommodates various budgets. With 4 double bedded on-suite cabins and a range of others to the 2 budget cabins which share a bathroom. All were clean, comfortable, and air-conditioned.
An absolute bucket list trip for snorkelers and scuba divers. Mike Ball and the crew are accommodation and extremely professional. I rate this trip very highly and look forward to taking another group back at some stage in the future.
