Karmactive Staff
Govind Tekale
A juvenile humpback whale took a detour through Sydney Harbour on Wednesday, temporarily halting ferry services and drawing crowds of onlookers to the foreshore.
The young whale entered the harbour around 8:00 AM on Wednesday, July 16, 2025, and was spotted near Circular Quay by 9:00 AM, when Transport for NSW made the call to briefly pause ferry operations.
“We paused services as a precautionary measure to ensure both the whale’s safety and that of our passengers,” said Transport for NSW spokesperson Mel Hall. “The safety of marine wildlife is a priority for us, especially during migration season.”
NSW National Parks and Wildlife Service (NPWS) and NSW Maritime quickly established an exclusion zone around the whale, enforcing regulations that require vessels to maintain a minimum distance of 100 meters from adult whales and 300 meters from calves.
Whale scientist Dr. Vanessa Pirotta from Macquarie University joined the NPWS escort vessel, providing real-time assessment of the whale’s condition and behavior.
Whale scientist Dr. Vanessa Pirotta from Macquarie University joined the NPWS escort vessel, providing real-time assessment of the whale’s condition and behavior.
“The whale was not in distress, quite the opposite. It’s really relaxed, quite chilled,” Dr. Pirotta said while observing the whale from a NSW Maritime vessel. “It’s a surprising whale, I must say, I’ve never watched a whale quite so interesting in Sydney Harbor.” She noted that “Sydney Harbour is very wild” and described the event as “a coordinated effort to try and do our very best for this creature when they do sometimes navigate off the humpback highway.” Dr. Pirotta urged the public, “If you see this whale tomorrow, please report it to authorities and make sure you keep your distance.”
The juvenile whale’s urban adventure took it past several Sydney landmarks, including Fort Denison, Circular Quay, Garden Island, Watsons Bay, and Balmoral, before it was last seen near Rose Bay on Wednesday evening.
NPWS reported no further sightings of the whale as of Thursday, July 17, suggesting it had likely returned to open water.
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The timing coincides with the annual humpback migration, when approximately 40,000 whales travel north from Antarctic waters to breeding grounds off Queensland. While whale sightings along Sydney’s coastline are common during the June-July peak migration period, entries into the harbour are “reasonably common,” but visits as far in as Circular Quay are rare.
“The disturbance from recreational vessels can make it a little stressed and on edge,” explained NPWS spokesperson Mel Hall. “We need to look after its welfare so that it can behave as naturally as possible.”
Public sightings reported through the Wild Sydney Harbour citizen science project, along with footage from Port Authority cameras, proved crucial for tracking the whale’s movements throughout the day. This marks the fifth humpback to enter the harbour this migration season, though this whale ventured further in than most.
A long-term shore-based monitoring program at Cape Solander has documented an increase in humpback sightings near Sydney since 1997, with researchers from Macquarie University finding an exponential growth rate of approximately 10% per year. This steady increase reflects the recovery of the humpback whale population following the end of commercial whaling.
NPWS thanked the public and transport operators for their cooperation during the incident and reminded boaters of their responsibility to maintain minimum distances from whales.
