The Whales Have Arrived
The whales have arrived, and the SouWEST research team has jumped back into action! Sarah prepared for the season by giving the SouWEST blog a make-over. She continues to be a super-star in managing the SouWEST blog media and content!
Cover Image: Breaching humpback whale (Photo: Brodee Elsdon)
Community Citizen Scientists
Chris and his magnificent team of community whale citizen scientists opened up the season last Monday. Their first observations of whales were at Pt. Piquet even with very dismal weather. On the very first week six humpbacks were sighted from Pt Picquet. Then approximately seven southern right whales were sighted by others at locations between Sugarloaf Rock and Dunsborough. Humpbacks are truly well into their journey north towards the Kimberley. The southern right whales have just arrived to spend their calving season in the south.
Southern right whale mum and calf (Photo: Brodee Elsdon)
Thesis Completion
PhD student Angela continues to make great progress. She is now in the final stages of completing her thesis investigating blue and humpback whale vocal behaviour in Geographe Bay. In her third year of analysing whale song and social sounds, she is identifying how frequently and in what social contexts whales produce these sounds. She recently presented some of her results at the International Congress on Conservation Biology (ICCB) in Colombia. But more on that soon!
Photo: Ian Wiese One of the first humpback whales of the season, a peduncle-slapping calf
Building a Catalogue of Whales
Chris and Chandra continue to build the SouWEST photo-identification catalogue of southern right whales.
Images of southern right whales from Augusta, Pt. Ann, and Geographe Bay taken in recent years are now in the catalogue.
Photo: Brodee Elsdon: On the move off Augusta
Welcome To The Team
This year SouWEST has a new team member: Brodee Elsdon, an honours student with the Centre for Marine Science and Technology (CMST) at Curtin University. She is being supervised by Chris, Chandra and Monique Gagnon (Dept. of Environment and Agriculture at Curtin University). Chris is helping to piece together the southern right whale story in the southwest. He’s been matching images taken in Flinders and Geographe Bay over the years by Chris, Ian Wiese, Chandra, and Naturaliste Charters. Ian Wiese is a local Dunsborough wildlife photographer.
Together, Chris, Chandra, and Brodee are working to identify connectivity and site fidelity of southern right whales in the southwest. Naturaliste Charters and the great crew on the Alison Maree have been absolutely fantastic in offering in-kind support. With Brodee and Chandra coming on board this month to supplement this year’s contribution to the photo-id catalogue.
What a great start to the 2017 whale season!
To join Naturaliste Charters on one of their year round charters visit the website:
Augusta Whale Watching May – August
Dunsborough Whale Watching August – November
Bremer Bay Killer Whale Expeditions December – April
