On Thursday, October 5th, we got our hair done. It was a radical, yet positive change. After getting our hair done we walked around Hervey Bay, but actually, most of the day was spent working on this web site. It does take a long time, but it will be nice to have a permenent record of our adventure and we certainly enjoy bringing our adventures to you.
Huge Humpback whales are in Hervey Bay so, Friday, October 6th, we decided to get in a boat a go check them out. They are on their way back to Antarctica after migrating to the warmer waters of the South Pacific for the winter. They are just kind of hanging out in the bay, resting up, chilling and playing. They will come right up to the boat and look at you. It's as if they are saying, "Who are you?". It makes you wonder who is really doing the watching. Is it us, or the whale?
They do this spectacular trick called breaching. The will literally sail straight up out of the water until their entire body is above the surface of the water, do a complete twist of their body, revealing their beautiful white underbelly, before entering the water on their back with a huge splash. It was awesome! It was worth getting up at 4:00 AM for.
Man almost killed off the whales. It is estimated that one whaling village in Australia (present day Brisbane) killed 10,000 Humpback Whales alone. When most of the whales were gone, the whaling stopped. It wasn't because man suddenly had a change of heart about killing whales, there just wasn't enough whales left to make it profitable.
But guess what? The Humpback is on the way back. It has risen to an estimated population of 3,500 to 4,000, which is up from an estimated 300 when Australia and other countries worldwide decided to ban whaling. The rise in the Humpback population represents a broader increase in all populations of whales from their lows in the mid-1960s.
So what does man do when it gets this good news! It starts whaling again! Japan has recently legalized whaling. (Thankfully Australia seems to have "got it" and they aren't renewing whaling practices, but the Japanese are!)
We were thinking about going to Japan on travels, but when we found this out we started rethinking that idea. What the Japanese are doing is wrong and it has to stop! Everyone of us needs to help by getting involved. Have you ever thought about checking out what Greenpeace is all about?
Just today on the Greenpeace home page is a story about a Japanese whaling vessel killing 48 whales which were all endangered species!
We left Hervey Bay, Saturday, October 7th.
