Swimming with Humpback Whales Hervey Bay 2023

Due to technical issues with WordPress (resulting in some of our older posts having content disappear) this post is very late being written. Whale season in Hervey Bay is July – November.

Hervey Bay, in Queensland, Australia, became the world’s first certified Whale Heritage Site in October, 2019.

“Hervey Bay is renowned for viewing the Southern Humpback whale between July to November, with the population on the rise and recovering after a history of whaling. In May, they leave their rich feeding grounds in Antarctica and undergo a 5000 km migration to their breeding grounds north of Fraser Island, in Whitsundays. At the beginning of the season, adult individuals are likely to be seen, while mothers and their calves arrive towards the end. They use the Hervey Bay site as a ‘whale nursery’ for resting and socialising, for about five days, before they undertake their long migration back to Antarctica. Hervey Bay is one of the few places in the world where multiple mothers and calves join together in one pod.” https://whaleheritagesites.org/hervey-bay/

For more information on research of Humpback Whales in Hervey Bay click here.

Swimming with Humpbacks

Hervey Bay Dive Centre is the only operator offering Swim with Whales in Hervey Bay. We had an amazing experience last year (2022 – you can check out our blog post here). Our friends from Melbourne, Lyn and Garry travelled up to join us this year and the whales did not disappoint. So many more whales this year than last year.

The water clarity was quite poor this year, so underwater photos have not come out as clear as last year (2022), but the whales still came very close to us, and swam under us while we were on the rope.

Here’s a link to our underwater photos from last year 2022.

Around Hervey Bay

We stayed at Torquay Caravan Park and would stay there again (Torquay is a suburb of Hervey Bay). Whale season is peak season in Hervey Bay so getting a camp site anywhere in the area is difficult. If you intend to visit, book well in advance.