Awe-inspiring sights of whales off the coast of Australia

Coming up, what a sight. It's like a religious experience. A hundred thousand humpbacks. Humpback highway, it's blubber to blubber. Having a whale of a time. That was unreal. That's next on 60 Minutes. Ordinarily, traffic jams cause headaches. The ones currently happening off Australia's eastern west coast though, bring only awe. Right now, about 100,000 humpback whales are out there having, yes, a whale of a time. Their great migration, which seems to get bigger every year, is also an important reminder of what the world almost lost. Up until the 1960s, humpbacks were hunted to the point of extinction. As few as 300 were left in our waters. But how things have changed. And if watching these magnificent creatures doesn't make you smile, then nothing will. They're as mysterious as they are majestic. And right now, they're putting on quite the spectacle. Singing, preaching and flapping against all odds. Generations of hunting put humpback whales on the cusp of extinction. Now, quite remarkably, they surf Australia's coast in the tens of thousands. I would count seeing a whale underwater as nearly like a religious experience. I've had people crying, giving you a hug in their wet wetsuit. There's not been a better time in history to start figuring out some of their secrets. And thanks to their huge resurgence, we're learning things even scientists could never have imagined. Wow. Few obsess over whales quite like whale scientist Dr Vanessa Perotta. But the number of individuals that have come into the harbour this year seems to be higher than normal. Where ordinary people see Sydney Harbour, she sees an on-ramp to the so-called humpback highway. Where, even in view of the city, she catches revealing glimpses of her study subjects every chance she gets. The humpback highway, it's blubber to blubber. There's challenges, there's times of heavy traffic, times of not heavy traffic. It's easy to see why she loves her job. But following and studying the annual whale migration along our east coast is so much more important than just a fun excursion. Whales arrive here to breed and give birth in warmer waters. Beyond that, though, there's so little anyone knows, including Dr Perotta. You clearly know your staff. It's not often, though, I'll sit here in front of a scientist or an expert and ask them, how much don't you know, Dr Perotta? Oh gosh, I don't know a lot. Scientists who say they know everything, they're probably naughty scientists. Is that particularly the case for whales, though? How little do we know about them? We know so little. The whale world is an amazing place that we just need to learn way more about because we as humans are changing the world that they live in. And Dr Perotta relies on some pretty incredible, albeit unlikely, helpers to further her work. People like Michael Haiti. He looks more suited to a garage than a whale-finding expedition, but he can't wait to do his part. Michael, not your typical photographer get-up, is it? No, just finished work and, yeah, basically heading down to the second job. Michael, from Dapto, south of Wollongong, is a mechanical fitter by trade, but a citizen scientist when he knocks off. Filming the whale migration off the coast at the moment is just incredible. You must turn some heads when you rock up on that coastline with your ute and your tradie fluoro and just get the drone out the back of it. I try to hide as much as possible, actually. A bit of quiet time after work is always good. This knockabout bloke is the last person you'd expect to be making scientific discoveries about whales. Yet, armed with a drone and an infectious enthusiasm for nature, it's exactly what he's doing. Half the time when I fly my drone, I actually forget to record. I get so caught up in the moment, hovering over the top of it, I sometimes look down at the controller and I'm not even recording, I'm just taking the moment in. Why do you think that is? What's going through your mind? It's just something special. It's also crucial. Some of the most stunning discoveries are being captured thanks to people like Michael, revealing not just incredible whale behaviour never seen in Australian waters before, but also their awe-inspiring intelligence. Even their feeding is a sight to behold, trapping their fish prey with bubbles in a way we'd use a net. We're seeing different species interact with others. We're also seeing whales feeding in super group feeding events, which has only been recently described. I'm talking about 20 or more humpback whales, five body lengths to each other, feeding in one area like a whale soup. And also bubble net feeding, where they blow bubbles from their nose and create this netted area where their prey remain in the middle and the animals will come up, either by themselves or with a partner, and gobble it up. There's plenty to feel, but also more whales to encounter on the water. That, sadly, can end badly. It's a fragile relationship Michael's witnessed firsthand. Most calf encounters, so mother and calf are pretty special. Just recently was filming the southern right whale pair, that was up the coast. That's probably in two years of filming whales, probably the highlight. Until his stomach probably sunk. What happened is something Michael never wanted to see, but recording it was a lesson in itself. Yeah, pretty tragic. I was filming the whales for over an hour. I did notice a small craft coming down the coast. Motoring along the cliffs, quite, quite close along the cliffs. I did mention it to the missus that this is going to be close. It's a pretty hard watch. Yeah, really hard to watch. Yeah. And not only the calf getting struck, but two weeks prior down the coast, the mother was also struck by a vessel and she's heavily scarred on one side. To have two boat strikes in a matter of two weeks, yeah, it's heartbreaking. You see that little head move just at the last split second. Did you get a sense that it could have been a lot worse? It could have been, yeah. It could have contacted the head and yeah, could have been a disaster. If a southern right whale is struck and killed, that has a population level impact, which means removing a reproductive female out of that population is dire. We don't want that. Because unlike humpbacks, the southern right whale hasn't recovered since whaling. So if an endangered species can be struck, you can appreciate the worry at boats sharing the coast with a humpback whale population of 100,000 and growing. And there's only so much you can learn and see from land. Coming up, we come face to face with these giant wonders. Harvey Bay in Queensland is the world's first whale heritage site. And right now, it's whale mecca. This sanctuary on their migration is a place of play and rest. For excited spectators like me and the scientists, it provides a unique opportunity to do something incredible. Swim with these graceful giants. I've had people crying, giving you a hug in their wet, wet suit. It's an incredible thing to have something of that size decide that it wants to check you out. And they're very intelligent animals. So it's very special. I'm in Harvey Bay with Dylan and Lara Boak. They run an ecotourism operation that gives the public the chance to dive with whales. They're adamant that bringing more people eye to eye with humpbacks is the best way to safeguard them into the future. There's lots of good reasons to look after our wildlife. But in the world that we live in, unfortunately, we need an economic reason. And ecotourism kind of offers a way that communities can make a living, for one, but also protect our wild spaces and our wildlife. For Dr Vanessa Perotta, businesses like Dylan and Lara's also provide crucial insights into whale behaviour. They see things and know things before we know in the science world. So it's an incredibly huge and collaborative work to understand what's happening in front of us and like the whales here situated right next to us, what they're up to. So that's why it's a citizen science effort, but a very communal one here in Australia. Of course, there are very strict regulations around whale diving. Put simply, any interaction needs to be on their terms, not ours. They will hear us before we see them. Is that right? And so that one there, they would have heard us. We came close and then they kind of checked us out. But then they were like, and then they've gone. As we move from pod to pod, the tour operators are looking for signs the whales are interested in a meeting. They can appear playful or even begin circling the boat. That phenomenon is known as mugging. So this is where if I was driving, you'd just wait because they're going to come and mug the boat. And to clarify, mugging. No loss of money. They steal your heart a little bit. They're off, they're off. It takes a few frustrating hours, but eventually the magic happens. A pod of three humpbacks approaches. It's pretty clear they're checking us out as much as we are them. And that's our cue to get ready. But even getting in order needs to be done the right way. We're the visitors after all. So we wait with our eyes fixed on the sea for these giant wonders to emerge from the cloudy depths and into view. When it happens, the euphoria of the moment being just metres from these mysterious, graceful and imposing animals. That was unreal. Is not remotely frightening, but rather delightfully calming. It's so humbling to see kind of like on your, you know, sort of like on the edge of your seat a little bit. Really excited. And then when something like that happens, the adrenaline rush. And then you sort of just feel warm and fuzzy. Well, did that really happen? Yeah. Mind-blowing. Speechless. For more than half an hour, they circled the boat and us, waving their fins, seemingly getting more and more curious with each pass. No one really has too much idea about what their movements mean. But with our safety and respect for these creatures in mind, Dylan and Lara make the call that maybe they're telling us they've had enough. It's time to get back in the boat and leave them alone. It's important to consider the size of these animals and they can behave unpredictably as well. We have to minimise impact as much as possible. So following the rules and regulations, acting with caution, reading their behaviour and, yeah, not acting like a cowboy, just showing respect. Up until recently, very few people have had this experience. But the fact there are now more opportunities to see these incredible giants close up is great news for Dr Vanessa Perotta. She says it guarantees scientists like her will get more and more valuable information about the whales' migratory behaviour. Here's a question for you. Do some whales even go all the way to Antarctica? Or do some whales even migrate? Quite remarkably, Vanessa is working on new theories about where the whales go. While it's been accepted that they always swam a well-worn route between Antarctica and northern Australia, she thinks there's now evidence to suggest some humpbacks may stay permanently in Australian waters. If that is a new phenomenon, them sticking around all year round, what in particular would you suspect is causing that? Maybe there might be productive waters here to sustain them sticking around. And maybe there's something going on in our blue backyard environmentally that we're not yet aware of, or we're only starting to really understand that. To my relief, both in perfect, perfect health, breaching, playing. Back in the Illawarra, having all those citizen scientist eyes on the water has brought some good news to drone photographer Michael Haiti. By all accounts, the mother and calf southern right whale that he filmed being struck by a boat are healthy and well. It's proof that thanks to the obsession of this community of amateur and professional scientists, our loved ocean giants aren't just admired, they're looked after. How does the family feel about your wholesome addiction? Look, the missus thinks I'm an absolute lunatic. I get up at sort of 4, 4.30 on an average daily basis on the ocean rocks most mornings before the sun even comes up. There's worse vices to have, Michael. There is, look, there is. And what would you say to anyone else thinking about taking up the hobby, not just for a fun pastime, but to do something that can be really beneficial? It's probably one of the greatest things you can do, really.