Whale season on Moreton Bay
Each winter, tens of thousands of humpback whales migrate along Australia's east coast, and from June to November many pass through or beside Moreton Bay. For a few months, the bay you charter on shares its water with 40-tonne visitors. This page explains what the season actually looks like from a small private boat, and the rules we follow when whales are near.
Filmed from the water, Moreton Bay
A humpback and her calf moving through the blue beneath us. Encounters like this are never sold and never promised. When they happen, this is what they look like.
What the season looks like from the water
A blow on the horizon. A dark back rolling through the swell. Sometimes a breach in the distance that stops every conversation on board. Encounters from a small boat are quieter and less choreographed than a whale watch cruise, because that is not what this is: on a private charter, whales are a possibility, never a promise. Some season days deliver nothing but dolphins and a perfect sandbar. Some days the bay puts on a show no schedule could have bought.
The rules we follow, always
Queensland law sets strict approach rules around whales, and we treat them as non-negotiable. Boats keep to 6 knots or less within 300 metres of a whale. No boat may come within 100 metres, or sit within 300 metres directly ahead of or behind a whale's path. No more than three boats may share that zone, and we never restrict a whale's path or split a pod. If a whale chooses to approach us, we switch the engines off or disengage the gears and let it pass. Guests do not enter the water within 100 metres of a whale, and our drone stays down whenever whales are about. Captain Jeremy is a marine scientist: the rules are not a burden out here, they are the point.
We are not a whale watching tour
Dedicated commercial whale watching in Moreton Bay Marine Park requires a Commercial Activity Agreement, and only a small, capped number exist. Sea La Vie does not hold one and does not operate or sell whale watching tours. Our charters are private days on the bay: snorkelling, sandbars, a French-style table on the water. If whales appear during your day in season, that is the bay's gift, observed the right way. If a guaranteed whale encounter is the whole point of your day, a licensed whale watch operator is the right choice, and we will happily say so.
When the whales are here
June to November, strongest through late winter and early spring, on their way north to breed and south again with calves. Nothing about wild animals runs to a timetable, and we would not want it to.
A private day on the bay is the experience; in season, the migration is the backdrop.
Year round, not just winter
Dolphins work these shallows all year, and turtles and dugongs turn up when the seagrass is good. The bay is busy long after the humpbacks have gone south.
