That’s a season wrap! Northern Whale Migration is over!

Sadly, our beautiful migrating whales finished the northward part of their annual journey of up to 10,000 km from Antarctic feeding grounds to warm and sunny Queensland, here they breed and give birth to their calves.

Happily, we are still seeing quite a few whales passing the island on their journey south, which in the past, happened sporadically. On 26/08, 5 whales were sighted, including an encounter by lucky passengers onboard our seal cruise.

Our Whale Watching cruises commenced on June 9th with the final cruise on August 9th, signalling the end of the season. Our sighting map shows just how varied the locations are where whales can be seen including, on several occasions, from our office window on Cowes Jetty.

The weirdest whale sighting was in the “narrows”, the stretch of fast running water under the San Remo Bridge. This caused havoc with incoming boats, including our Dolphin and Whale cruise which had to make an emergency stop in the water as the geographically challenged whale popped up in front of them.

Although weather forced us to cancel several cruises, we added extra sailings near the end of the season to reduce the waiting list. The 2026 season also coincided with an El Niño event, which can influence ocean temperatures, currents and weather patterns across the region, potentially contributing to some of the unusual conditions we experienced this year. The success rate of all cruises with all three of our boats for the 2026 season stands at 81.17% and we logged 149 whale encounters, which is each occasion we spend up to an hour within our marine licence limit of 100 metres.

We also included very successful cruises from Stony Point on the mainland, which gave passengers the opportunity to not only see whales but also get excellent views of the Cape Schanck and surrounding areas from a completely different perspective.

Our sighting map clearly shows that the area from east of Cape Woolamai down to the desalination plant to be a whale “hotspot”. We don’t yet know exactly why whales appear to favour this area, but local oceanographic conditions, including currents, water depth and prey availability, may all play a role. Luckily, crew member Brittnee has taken on the challenge as part of her university Honours project, investigating exactly what might be driving this whale hotspot. We can’t wait to see what she discovers!

Highlights of the season were numerous competitive pods (male whales fighting to mate with a female, a young whale swimming through and playing with seaweed or Phyllospora for over an hour, a visit from our favourite Orca pod, which this time included two males and a very close to the boat double breach photographed off Pyramid Rock.

Our next Phillip Island whale season returns in June. Book early and secure your spot on a Winter Whale Cruise or Dolphin & Whale Cruise!

Photos provided by Citizen Scientist Ian Ryan