Sad news on the Broadwater

After a full day out yesterday, checking potential abodes, we arrived back at the van to find out that during the morning a young 8 metre Humpback whale had found its way into the Broadwater through the seaway, it is believed to be one of last year's crop of calves. Some dolphins have been seen in the Broadwater before, but not whales. As the Gold Coast's famous Sea World facility is on the Broadwater, their experts were immediately on hand to assess this young whale's condition and situation.

An expert from Sea World swam with the whale and found some disturbing facts - the whale had obviously been caught up in some ropes, nets or the like(which it had managed to shed) , but these had obviously prevented it from feeding, as it was very low in condition (starving) and covered in sea lice.

The experts from Sea World, VMR (Volunteer Marine Rescue), Water Police and Marine Services hoped this young whale had found its way into the Broadwater to rest and recover, and decided to leave it alone for the night, and were hoping to guide it back through the seaway at high tide this morning.

However, this morning the young whale was found beached and dead at Runaway Bay, cause of death is believed to be "starvation"!

Only reason I am publishing these photos, is to show how huge these gentle giants of the sea are - remember only 12 months old.

Seaworld experts along with everyone else were extremely upset - here's hoping this young whale just wanted somewhere beautiful to pass away.

I guess we will hear more tomorrow - sad day!!.