A rare pygmy blue whale has been sighted off the New South Wales Central Coast.
Local drone operator Chris Dick first noticed a tell-tale spout off Terrigal yesterday afternoon and decided to check it out.
He flew his drone over the site, but the whale had dived out of sight.
Luckily he did not give up, and it resurfaced 20 minutes later further north, off Bateau Bay.
That is when he realised he had seen something special.
"I thought initially it was two whales back-to-back," he said.
"When I got closer I realised that it was one huge whale and I went 'Oh my God, it's a blue whale.'"
"For a whale nerd like myself, that's a really exciting moment."
Ronny Ling from Marine Wildlife Rescue Central Coast said it appeared to be a pygmy blue whale estimated to be around 25 metres long.
"It blew my mind yesterday, along with everyone else who saw it," he said.
"It's the first confirmed sighting of a blue whale off the Central Coast … so to have it so close to shore is really, really unusual."
Whale's health in question
Mr Ling says the whale in the drone footage looked a bit thin.
"You can see that backbone coming up," he said.
"So, it looks like it really needs to start feeding and start feeding well."
Terrigal Whale Watching Tours Skipper Andrew Jones had packed up the boat and was back home when the news came in of the extremely rare sighting.
"The drone boys phoned to say it was passing Terrigal … So, we raced up to Wyrrabalong [National Park] and watched it go by," he said.
"We were lucky to see it come within a kilometre of where we stood … just a beautiful sight."
The last reported sighting of a blue whale off the east coast of NSW was off Maroubra in Sydney's south east in 2020.
"I'm led to believe there have only been about four [sightings] in the past 100 years on the east coast," Mr Dick said.
"For a whale-watching nerd, it's equivalent to the pot of gold or the hole in one."
