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Whale Watching Worldwide

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southern right whales are even known to enter the harbour. Sperm whales are also sometimes seen in the<br />

area. The Portland Visitor Centre manages an email notification system that has as many as 300 subscribers<br />

who are alerted when a whale is sighted. Similar to Eden in NSW, a flag is also raised and a siren sounded<br />

when a sighting occurs.<br />

Portland is also home to the only known dedicated air‐based blue whale watching tour in the world. Offered<br />

between November and May, the trips are helicopter‐based with a flying time of 30 minutes and a sighting<br />

rate of over 95%. Blue whales aggregate for feeding in the Bass Straight off Portland in an area known as the<br />

Bonney Upwelling, one of only 12 known aggregation areas for blue whales around the world 34 (Gill, 2005).<br />

Main species: Large cetaceans:<br />

humpback whale, southern right whale,<br />

blue whale<br />

Small cetaceans:<br />

Indo‐Pacific bottlenose dolphin<br />

Tourists: N/A<br />

International 30%<br />

Domestic 70%<br />

Types of tours: Boat‐based, land‐based, air‐based, swim‐with<br />

Average adult ticket price: $32 (dolphin watching)<br />

$68 (dolphin swim‐with)<br />

$240 (blue whale watching,<br />

30min flying time for 2 passengers)<br />

Estimated employment<br />

17<br />

numbers:<br />

Main whale watch season: November to May (blue whales)<br />

June to September (southern right whales)<br />

Year‐round (dolphins)<br />

Acknowledgements:<br />

Peter Abbot (Warrnambool City Council), Vivienne Clare (Department of Sustainability & Environment), Rachel<br />

Marchbank (Department of Sustainability & Environment), Thesspina Donopoulos (Parks Victoria), and all operators<br />

who kindly participated in our research.<br />

References:<br />

Gill, P 2005, ‘Movements of satellite‐tagged blue whales, Bonney Upwelling’, Australocetus Research & Deakin<br />

University, April 2005, available online at:<br />

http://www.environment.gov.au/coasts/species/cetaceans/conference/pubs/bw‐gill.pdf<br />

34 The other known aggregation areas for blue whales are the Chilean fjords, Costa Rica Dome, Baja California, US west<br />

coast, Gulf of St Lawrence, Davis Strait (Greenland), off the west coast of Iceland, south of Madagascar, east coast of Sri<br />

Lanka, Davis Sea (Antarctica) and eastern Nusa Tenngara, Indonesia.<br />

169

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