The annual migration of the whales through Halifax Bay has started. They have been seen with the naked eye from the beach at Saunders Beach, swimming northward past Herald and Rattlesnake Island or just taking a break in the warm waters near Magnetic Island.

This pic from the Townsville Bulletin of the 2015 migration season captures the wonder of the whale.

Humpbacks live in the cold waters of Antarctica where there are rich feeding grounds and migrate to warmer tropical water from about May to September to give birth. Remarkably it wasn’t always this way. There was a time when sightings of whales as far north as Halifax Bay was a rarity. What happened to the annual migration in times gone by and why are they back now?

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