Whale of a season closes with a visitor record

Jessica Benton
The region has finished a record season for southern right wales along the Great Ocean Road, according to a wildlife worker.
Department of Sustainability and Environment biodiversity officer Mandy Watson said southern right whales normally appeared intermittently along Victoria’s coast during winter but this year were present in record numbers “everywhere”.
The season had gotten off to a slow start until the year’s first sighting of a mother and calf off Barwon Heads in late June, she said.
People travelling along the coast and residents had also reported many sightings of single whales, Ms Watson said
Reports in the Geelong region stretched from Barwon Heads and Torquay along the Great Ocean Road to near the South Australian border.
Independent fishing writer Brian Long said anglers had reported so many sightings that whales had apparently become “residents” off Cinema Point, near Lorne, during winter.
Ms Watson said the total Australian population of the southern right whale species was about 2500.
The Victorian population was still “critically” endangered, she said.