A record number of whales have been sighted migrating off the NSW coast.
A record number of whales have been spotted migrating up the NSW coast during the annual consensus.
The count of the number of whales is held as part of a citizen science activity by the Organisation for the Rescue and Research of Cetaceans (ORRCA).
ORRCA’s president Ashley Ryan said that over 5,092 whales, predominantly humpback, were sighted on Sunday, an increase of nearly 500 from last year.
“There should still be some more numbers coming in as people finish off their surveys, and if anyone has done any paper recording, they’ll also need to enter them into the app,” Ms Ryan said.
“It’s such an amazing conservation success story, we just need to see the numbers rise for the southern right whales as well.”
Ms Ryan said that those taking part in the annual consensus lined 70 vantage points along the rocks by the water, with some sites proving to be more popular for the whales than others.
“Boat Harbour at Port Stephens did well, so did King Edward Park in Newcastle, Port Macquarie has always recorded good numbers and so has Cape Solander.”
Ms Ryan also said that clear skies and calm conditions at sea helped increase sightings, and that more whales were travelling closer to the shore than in previous years.
“Definitely makes it easier when you have a flat ocean to look at and you can just count the blows and the bodies and the breaches as well,” Ms Ryan said.
“We saw lots of great photos and videos today and there’s whales literally just off the rocks from where people were recording today.
“This is just one day out of three months of research that we do, so it’s a great initiative to get the community involved and make them excited about the whales.”
