Every Austral winter the only known recurrent aggregation of Dwarf Minke Whales takes place on the northern Great Barrier Reef. The inquisitive nature of these whales has allowed a swim with whales (SWW) industry to develop in this region, with regulations in place to control the number of vessels, and mandatory guidelines for conducting the encounters. Together the Minke whale project (www.minkewhaleproject.org), SWW tourism industry and NGO’s, undertake various research projects to learn more about Dwarf Minke behaviour, biology, human impact and sustainable tourism management. Mike Ball dive expeditions has been a strong supporter of this research for 19 years, and offers numerous expeditions each year for Minke encounters and research (http://www.mikeball.com). Fortunately, Mike Ball also supports the scholarship, allowing me a place onboard Spoilsport for a seven night exploratory trip.

This week-long trip included loads of amazing experiences. While Dwarf Minke whales remained the first priority, many dives on Great Barrier reef and Coral sea were conducted in between encounters. Additionally, divers could explore both new and well known dive sites, and make the most of night diving. Here are some short video highlights of the marine life seen: https://vimeo.com/103508702

The presence of Minke Matt (Matt Curnock) on Spoilsport was an added bonus. He provided great scientific background on Dwarf Minkes and was constantly on the deck spotting for whales. Matt explained the importance of having everyone contributing to Minke research, including an ongoing photo identification database of donated images. These are used to recognise complex colour patterns distinctive to both the left and right side of each individual. Over one hundred individuals have been identified each season including many returnee whales. One example is Bento (bent dorsal) – first reported in 2006, reported every year since, and this year had a calf.

This trip was also the trial run for using my Sony A5000 setup with the Catlin Seaview survey 360 degree rig. A big thank you to Mike, Jayne and Ollie for assisting in taking the images and providing great backdrops. Check out the final result: https://www.google.com/maps/views/view/108517873237526057594/gphoto/6039503970134380466?gl=us&heading=7&pitch=90&fovy=75

Another amazing dive site, the Cod Hole, lived up to its name, with large potato cod gliding past the divers. Thanks to Julia Sumerling (the videographer on board) and Mike Ball Dive expeditions, I ended up with some lovely footage of my own cod experience: https://vimeo.com/103509935

Photo courtesy Jayne Jenkins

 

Providing healthy competition and great entertainment, on the last night each guest selected three images to enter the Mike Ball photo competition. After taking video footage and 360 images the majority of the trip, I was lucky enough to have some brilliant underwater models on my last day diving. The Mantis shrimp and yawning coral trout managed to take away first and third place in the compact division. On an even better note, Jayne’s great shark photos took both first and second place in the SLR division!

To finish up – it would not be the wonderful trip it was without Mike and the crew, a massive thank you to everyone onboard!!