The talks, hosted by marine naturalist Jeannie Lawson, took place on Sunday, October 13 while calves and their mothers drifted through the water off the coast.

Jeannie said the talks usually take place at the start of winter during the northern migration but a move to October ensured the whales would be viewed closer to the Bennetts Head lookout as they travelled south.

"Mothers and calves are usually what you see at this time of year as all the mothers have given birth," Jeannie explained.

"The majority of the humpbacks, which would be maybe 35,000 whales on the east coast, are all travelling out near the horizon, catching a current called the East Australian Current.

"Most of the whales are catching that very fast flowing current that's going right down to the Antarctic and that's where the whales want to be at this time of year."

Those who attended the talks were treated to 'a lot of action' where the calves continued to breach.

More than 3000 calves have been born on the east coast this year.

Their mothers stay close to the coastline in order to regularly feed them.

"They haven't fed that much, if at all since March," Jeannie said.

"They want to get down to the southern ocean as quickly as they can because they are very hungry by now."

Calves take up to 300 to 400 litres of milk a day.

"They do that in short bursts, they don't just suckle all of that at once," she said.

In recent times, humpbacks have been spotted at numerous locations along the coast.

As they head south, the calves are learning new behaviours such as tail slapping and jumping out of the water to breach.

This helps with navigating the southern migration.

"As with any other mammal, all of that play behaviour is very important for them, it's strengthening their muscles and it's helping their coordination," Jeannie said.

Other whale species that are viewed in the Great Lakes area, albeit irregularly, include minke, southern right, pilot, false killer, orca or fin.

"There's quite a few other species but they're a bit hit and miss, it's just lucky if you see them whereas with the humpbacks we know where they're going to be at different times of the year," Jeannie said.

She also gave insight to baleen, a feeder system inside the whale's mouth used to collect prey.

It is made of keratin, the same protein found in fingernails.

"It hangs down in big sheets from the whale's mouth," Jeannie said.