Pod of Endangered Species Sei Whales sighted at Agincourt Re

Quicksilver Group - SilverSonic News Feed

Passengers and crew aboard the Port Douglas-based dive and snorkel vessel Silversonic were excited to see more than five whales, confirmed to be Sei Whales at Agincourt Reef in late February.

The Sei Whales, which remain on the endangered species list, were seen near Silversonic’s “Three Sisters” site at Agincourt Reef. While the boat was stationary, one of the whales emerged in full view spending several minutes around the boat before swimming away. Further in the distance, another four or more whales were seen diving and appeared to be feeding.

Quicksilver marine biologist and Environment Compliance Manager, Doug Baird, said the whales were between 15 –18 metres long and due to the inquisitive nature of the whale that approached the boat, several photographs were taken. This enabled the whales to be identified with the assistance of a whale researcher with extensive experience in whale identification. The key to identifying a Sei Whale is through the distinguishing feature of a single ridge extending from the blowholes to the tip of the upper jaw.

Silversonic had first recorded sighting one of these rare whales in January 2008.

The Sei (pronounced “say”) Whales are among the more elusive of the large whales and are rarely seen inshore preferring the deeper oceans. They are one of the fastest whales with bursts of speed up to 55km/hr. The Sei Whale is very similar in appearance to the Fin and Brydes whales being long, streamlined and having a V – shaped head which is flat on top.

Growing up to 20 metres and 30 tonnes, they are the third largest of the baleen whales, after the Blue Whale and the Fin Whale. Their body is dark grey with a paler underside. It has twin blowholes with a low splashguard to the front.

The Sei Whale is a filter feeder, feeding on small schooling fish, squid and crustaceans. It feeds by swimming at a relatively high speed, opening its jaw which causes it to engulf up to 18,000 gallons of water. It then closes its jaw and pushes the water back out its mouth through the baleen, allowing the water to leave while trapping the prey. They can consume up to 2 tons of food per day.

In general, the Sei whale migrates annually from cool and subpolar waters in summer to temperate and subtropical waters for winter, where food is more abundant and mating occurs.

The Sei Whale is on the endangered species list with reports of less than 54,000 in the world

Low Isles and a trip back in time

Quicksilver Group - Wavedancer Low Isles News Feed

It was a wonderful trip back in time to relive their family history on Low Isles at the turn of the last century when the grandchildren of one of the island’s original lighthouse keepers visited the island aboard Wavedancer recently.

Joy Searle and Ailsa Campbell’s recalled their mother Alice’s wonderful memories of living on the tropical island over 100 years ago.
 
Alice who spent her early years from 4 years growing up on a coral cay
where the barge arrived fortnightly, music was from a gramophone

Their Grandfather Hugh Nibloe, was appointed as a lighthouse keeper in 1907 having arrived from Scotland where he had worked as a lighthouse keeper on the Orkney Islands and Mull of Kintyre. After two years on Low Isles his wife Agnes and 2 small children Alice and Jessie joined him from Scotland. This was a time of wonderful memories for their mother Alice who spent her early years from 4 years growing up on a coral cay where the barge arrived fortnightly, music was from a gramophone, no pets were allowed but they were thankful for a talking cockatoo.

Joy said, “This trip is an important part of our family history as well as an adventure to visit a place and surroundings so well worth seeing! Our mother wrote quite a bit about her ‘Life on the Island’. I have some shells here in front of me that she collected there 100 years ago! (allowed to take them away in those days, of course). I personally visited in 2002 and was thrilled to see that on one of the information boards displayed on the walk around the island was a picture of our grandparents, mother and aunt.” For Ailsa the trip brought another milestone as this was her first plane flight and the celebration of her 70th birthday”

Tony Baker, Managing Director, the Quicksilver Group said, “Low Isles has a wonderful history.  This was the first destination for Quicksilver back in 1989.  I can only imagine how idyllic it was to live on Low Isles back at the turn of the last century and we welcome Joy and Ailsa to rekindle their history of the Island through their mother and grandfather’s eyes.”

The landmark lighthouse has greeted guests since 1878 and became automated in 1993.  Low Isles and its historic lighthouse icons have both been declared Commonwealth Heritage listed.

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Pink Flamingo - Pink Flamingo News Feed

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