'Thar she blows!'

Thar she blows!

It is only 12 weeks until all eyes start to search the horizon to find the fine spray of mist that indicates the first sighting of the first whale of the 25^th season of whale watching in Hervey Bay.

Tension mounts. You have been onboard for about 20 minutes and the expanse of water glistens; the golden sands and dunes of Fraser Island take your attention. You have driven, flown or bused your way into Hervey Bay for what is probably a once in a lifetime adventure - to see a humpback whale. You begin to think that maybe you will not see a whale today. Then you hear the call, ‘thar she blows.’

You bounce to your feet and look in the direction of pointing fingers. The boat slows and silence once again descends amongst the group. You look expectantly but see nothing. It is like everyone is holding their breath, and then an audible whoosh and what sounds like a grunt– it’s a whale. Cheers and awes erupt at the realisation of a dream - 40 ton of humpback whale, right there beside the boat. Then whoosh another whale. Your breath is really taken away now.

Whale hunters coined the phrase ‘Thar she blows!’ on sighting this column of vapor as the whale exhaled. With each breath that we take we exchange probably 15% of the air in our lungs. A whale exchanges over 90% and they do that in a matter of seconds. They can hold their breath for up to 45 minutes and no wonder, they have lungs the size of the latest Mini Minor.