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Whales of the Rainbow Coast
Western Australia
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| Each year tourists
from around the world visit the Rainbow Coast to catch a glimpse
of the whales. The Great Southern Ocean is home to a huge whale
population who breed and feed in the bays.
These
beautiful creatures pass us during their migration as they travel
between the warmer northern waters and the cooler seas surrounding
Antarctica. The Southern Ocean Whale Sanctuary, adopted by the International
Whaling Commission in 1994, provides long-term protection to the
feeding grounds of almost three quarters of the world's remaining
whales. Many whale species can be found off of the Rainbow Coast.
Information on these gigantic creatures can be found below.
Our first whale sighting.
June 18th, 2008 The Blowholes, Albany >>
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Humpback
Whale
Humpback Whale
Length: 14 -19 metres long with calves approximately 5 metres.
Weight: 25 - 40 tonnes (40,000 kilograms)
Speed: 8 kmph (4 knots)
The Humpback whale is a beleen whale, which means it has baleen
plates for filtering food from water, rather than having teeth.
These great whales typically migrate up to 25,000 kilometres each
year as they migrate between Antarctica and Australia.
They are a common sound in 'whale song' tapes and CDs. More
information on Humpback
Whales can be found at Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. They
were once hunted to the brink of extinction.
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Southern
Right Whale
(Eubalaena australis)
Right Whale
Length: Adult 15 – 18m Calf 5.5m
Weight: Adult 54 - 96 tonnes
Speed: 4 kmph (2 knots) – 10kmph (5 knots)
Southern Right Whales head for the bays during early
winter and spring when they arrive to give birth before returning
to the Antarctic waters to feed for the summer months.
These whales are called 'right' whales because they
were the 'right' whale for whalers to hunt. They were slow, and
thus hunted easily. There are now only 7,500 Southern Right Whales
spread throughout the Southern Hemisphere. Since hunting of the
Southern Right Whale ceased, their numbers are estimated to have
grown by 7% a year.
The Southern Right whale uses the sheltered beaches
along the Rainbow Coast to birth their young - usually from July
to October.
More information on Southern
Right Whales can be found at Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
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Sperm Whales ~ (Physeter macrocephalus)
Sperm
Whale
Length: Male 15 – 20m Female 14m
Weight: Male 35 tonnes Female 19 tonnes
The sperm whale (Physeter macrocephalus) is the largest of all
toothed whales, making them the Earth's largest living carnivore
and largest living toothed animal. They feed on squid and fish,
diving as deep as 2,200 metres (7,200 ft) in order to obtain it,
making it the deepest diving mammal in the world.
Sperm whales are easily recoginised by the rectangular head shown
in drawings of Herman Melville's "Moby Dick."
More information on Sperm
Whales can be found at Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
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Southern
Minke Whale
Minke Whale
Length: Adult 8 – 10m Calf 3m
Weight: Adult 8 tonnes Calf .45 tonnes
Speed: 25 kmph (13 knots)
Minke whales arch their backs while diving but do not raise their
tail flukes. They can live up to 60 years.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Southern_Minke_Whale |
Fin Whale
Fin Whale - The second largest whale.
Like all other large whales, the Fin
Whale was heavily hunted during the twentieth century and is
an endangered species.
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The
Orca (Killer Whale)
The Orca whale belongs to the oceanic dolphin family and is found
all around the world. They are seasonal visitors to the Rainbow
Coast. Orcas live in pods (groups) of between 2 and 40. Each group
includes at least one large male. Their social behaviour is worth
noting, as it points us to another intelligence evolving in the
largest of the dolphin family.
"The paper "Culture in Whales and
Dolphins", goes as far as to say, "The complex and stable
vocal and behavioral cultures of groups of killer whales (Orcinus
orca) appear to have no parallel outside humans and represent
an independent evolution of cultural faculties."
~
Wikipedia
Orca
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Helping a stranded whale:
Whales and dolphins can become stranded on the beach. If you find
a stranded whale or dolphin, please contact the the The Department
of Fisheries at: ALBANY REGIONAL OFFICE on 08 9841 7766
Suite 7, Frederick House, 70-74 Frederick St, Albany, WA, 6330
What can I do?
- Look for signs of movement.
- Be gentle.
- Protect the whale from the sun if possible.
- Pour cold water on the skin, especially the flippers and fluke.
- It may be possible to return a small whale to the ocean using
a sling of canvas or towe1s. Carry it into the water and keep
its blowhole above the surface until it can swim.
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The Rainbow Coast is a national biosphere area and deserves our care and respect, please reduce your environmental impact when visiting the coast. Your safety while visiting the Rainbow Coast is your responsibility. We recommend several resources while visiting the Region. Photographs are copyright protected and are editorial in nature and are not for sale and may NOT be used without written permission. Maps coded using open source technology from Google. Videos are intended for educational and documentary purposes and are streamed using YouTube technology. Website design and photographs by our family of four living in the heart of the Rainbow Coast.
This website is for informational purposes only and is a travelogue, weblog and a web resource for visitors to the region.
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