Australian officials are to carry out secret surveys of Cairns tourist boats by land and sea to ensure they are keeping a good distance from migrating humpback whales. A record 14,000 whales are expected to be swimming up the Queensland coast this year to breed on the Great Barrier Reef.

A small pod of whales was spotted weeks earlier than expected, about 50km off the Cairns coast last week. The Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority and officers from the Federal environment department, alongside officers from the Queensland Department of Environment and Resource Management, are starting compliance surveys, as part of a nationwide operation to enforce whale approach limits. Boats are not allowed to be within 100m of a whale in the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park.

Officers will be involved in a various compliance and enforcement strategies, including land and sea patrols and covert surveillance and the activity will commence once the whales are sighted, the public are also being encouraged to report suspected offences although there will be a balance between watching whales and getting in their way. Complying with whale approach limits will ensure the safety of whales is protected and also contributes to their successful migration, it is expected there would be an increase of about 1500 whales from last year’s migration.

All very good news in terms of the ongoing recovery of the population. It is estimated there were about 26,000 humpback whales in eastern Australian prior to the start of commercial whaling last century, but that population crashed to a few hundred due to whaling.

A whole tourism industry has been built around taking members of the public out to the Cairns Great Barrier Reef each year to see these gentle giants.