whale watching

HUMPBACK HIGHWAY

Eden is one of the best whale-watching spots in Australia during the annual migration between May and early November. You’ll find plenty of shoreline vantage points around Twofold Bay and along the coast in Beowa National Park, formerly Ben Boyd National Park.

Twofold Bay is the third-deepest natural harbour in the Southern Hemisphere and has a long association with whales. You can hear the story of Old Tom the orca at the Eden Killer Whale Museum or take the self-drive Killer Whale Trail, an intriguing trip into the past to a time when whales were hunted for oil.

The region is now known as the “Humpback Highway” as every year our waters see the arrival of thousands of migrating humpback whales on their way north from May to July, and then from August to November on their way home to Antarctica. Numbers are increasing every year and have most recently been estimated at 45,000 completing this annual migratory route.

Eden has also become renowned as a location to view these magnificent gentle giants of the sea feeding in the rich currents off our coast, and exhibiting rarely seen behaviours such as bubble net feeding. During the migration of 2020 and 2021 conditions drew what was coined as a “mega-pod” of humpbacks, a large group of up to 100-150 whales in a feeding frenzy getting their fill of coastal krill (Nyctiphanes Australis) as well as small teleost fish (including sardines).

Nowhere on the South Coast is it as easy to get so close to these whales. During the peak season (September-October), charter operators have their choice of pods to watch within minutes of leaving Eden Wharf. There are also many onshore viewing points in and around the town – listen for the siren that will sound from the Eden Killer Whale Museum whenever there is a whale in the bay. The Eden Whale Festival, held every spring around mid October, celebrates this migration.

WHALE WATCHING TOURS