Group enjoys early start to whale season

After last year's disappointing southern right whale season, Albany Ocean Adventures owner Paul Guest was shocked to see five southern right whales last Sunday near Breaksea Island.

"That's the earliest I've ever seen southern right whales in the 18 years I've been doing this," Mr Guest said.

He said he hoped it was a sign that this whale watching season would be better than the last.

Last Thursday he saw a curious young humpback whale dance around his boat.

"We enjoyed that bloke for about 60 minutes and I took over 400 photos of just him," he said.

"He breached and came in past us 10m off the bow."

He said the passengers were thrilled by the young humpback's playful display.

"We were out there and saw this whale breaching, then we saw two adults swim by," he said.

Mr Guest said they chose to move closer to the whale breaching and ended up hanging around him for more than an hour as he breached out of the water around the boat.

He said his tour usually travelled between Bald Head and Breaksea Island along the line known by local whale enthusiasts as the Humpback Highway.

The day following the young humpback sighting he said was a disappointing day for whale watching.

"They can be especially playful and they'll breach 30 times or they'll breach once. You never know," he said.

"It makes no difference on the weather. You can have a choppy day and the whales go nuts or a calm day where they go nuts.

"You just have to be in the right place at the right time."