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The Undersea Explorer Dwarf Minke Whale Project is now in its tenth year. This expedition spending 6 days on the Great Barrier Ribbon Reefs, has developed into an amazing experience of in-water whale encounters unparalleled around the world. We now know a lot more about these whales than other dive boats, and we encounter over 220 whales during our 6 week season, with up to 60 whales in some weeks! On these expeditions you will swim with magnificent Dwarf Minke Whales, and have the added bonus of diving the northern Great Barrier Reef.

Most of our whale interactions are conducted while snorkelling and being totally predictable while holding on to lines attached to the vessel as it drifts. This ensures that the encounter happens under the whales terms. The dwarf minke whales within the northern Great Barrier Reef are probably the most curious and interactive of all the baleen whales.

Encounters usually last for over 1 ½ hours and often many hours with multiple whales. Usually Undersea Explorer breaks off the encounter before the whales, after hours of close whale passes and sufficient scientific data gathering! Seeing a whale from above the water is amazing, seeing a whale whilst in the water with it is incredible, close and prolonged eye contact with a whale is a lifetime experience and eyeballing a whale while its vocalisations reverberate through your chest is as good as it gets! We now know a lot more about these whales since their identification as a probable sub-species of the northern hemisphere minke whale in 1985.

The project has been responsible for developing a world-renowned set of guidelines and code of practice for minke whale encounters. This has enabled in-water encounters to be heralded by the International Whaling Commission, Marine Park Authority, & Environment Australia as world's best practice examples of in-water whale encounters. The minke project is working to ensure that the dwarf minke whale tourism is ecologically sustainable at a time when currently most in-water marine mammal interactions are being banned around the world due to potentially unsustainable practices.

Every guest on board is helping fund the project and is part of the exciting research. Snorkellers and divers will help identify individual whales, be involved in behavioural observations and be absorbed by the atmosphere of minke research.

Also remember that this is not 'just' a whale trip. There is also the magnificent diving and snorkeling on the coral gardens and pinnacles of the Great Barrier Ribbon Reefs. Mix this with world class marine interpretation with experts in whale and coral reef biology and it really is a unique adventure.
 

Testimonials

Minke Whale Research Website

In 1995 Undersea Explorer contacted Dr Peter Arnold, Museum of Tropical Queensland regarding the development of a collaborative Dwarf Minke Whale research project. With the invaluable guidance of Dr Alistair Birtles, James Cook Uni, the project was formed. Since then Undersea Explorer has facilitated hundreds of hours of in-water and surface observations of Dwarf Minke Whales - resulting in detailed movement, behaviour and size estimation records of the whales.