Whale News - July 2022
The WhaleFace Community continues to grow
We are excited to report that we now have 335 registered WhaleFace users, 103 more than this time last year. We hope you are enjoying the start of the 2022 Whale Season. Thank you to all the dedicated community members collecting important data for the long-term monitoring of southern right whales in Victorian waters. So far, we have received 45 reports from 27 people, and we look forward to more to come!
Why your data is so important
The eastern Australian population of southern right whales is a small population of less than 300 individuals, with approximately 68 breeding females. Their recovery from whaling has been slow and is due in some part to their long calving cycle (avg. 3-4 years) and their strong migratory culture - where knowledge of calving sites is passed down through generations.
The only established nursery ground for this population (where females consistently return to breed) is Logans Beach in Warrnambool. It is possible that this pre-whaling nursey site exists today because it was the only place in eastern Australia where some females survived, and so the cultural memory for that site was retained.
DELWP’s southern right whale monitoring program has been collecting data on southern right whales since the early 80s. Whilst there has been no significant increase in the annual number of cow-calf pairs at Logans beach in this time, there are some promising signs of recovery.
In recent years, there have been an increasing number of observations of cow/calf pairs in locations that correspond with areas of historical importance such as southern NSW, south-east Tasmania, and other parts of south-western Victoria. The Portland area seems to be emerging as an important area for southern right whale cow-calf pairs in Victorian waters.
Your contributions to WhaleFace helps us to continue to follow individuals’ life histories and understand population trends, movement patterns and habitat use. By submitting your sightings and photos to WhaleFace, you will be contributing to meaningful scientific research.
Your data helps informs future management actions to protect southern right whales in Victorian waters. So please keep them coming!
Every photo is important. Having a range of images gives us the best chance of accurately identifying an individual. So please submit multiple photos of the same individual if you have them (even if you know someone else has uploaded images of the same whale).
Although WhaleFace is focused on southern right whales we welcome sightings (and photos) of all whale species. All data that comes into WhaleFace (once verified) is submitted to the Victorian Biodiversity Atlas (VBA), the official repository for all of Victoria’s fauna and flora records. Having these links to the VBA is important as the data is then publicly accessible and can be used by the state government for conservation and planning purposes.
First calf for the season
Victoria’s first Southern Right Whale calf sighting for 2022 was confirmed on the 23/6/22 when photos showed a mother and her new-born calf travelling west near Port Campbell.
The same pair was spotted at Logans Beach on 25/6/2022. This was an outstanding team effort by several dedicated whale-watchers and photographers. A big thanks to Jiri Haureljuk, Ron Ricketts, Chris Farrell, Maureen MacDonald, Coralee Askew and Peter Read for their efforts in ensuring we received early confirmation and photos of this pair.
It will be interesting to see if they remain in the area for the rest of the season. Latest reports show that they have been in the Portland area for a few days, after spending four days at Logans Beach. We have not yet confirmed if this female is known to the catalogue.
We look forward to receiving more images of the pair as the season progresses. One of the great advantages of the expanding whale watching community is that we are often able to track cow-calf pairs along their journey, even into western nursery grounds like Encounter Bay and Head of Bight in South Australia.
Cow-calf pair near Port Campbell, Jiri Haureljuk
Mandy’s new role
As many of you will know, Mandy Watson has been the backbone of DELWP’s whale research and conservation efforts in Victoria for more than 25 years. Mandy is about is about to embark on a 12-month secondment with the Commonwealth Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Enivronment and Water (DCCEEW). She will be working in the marine policy space. Her main task will be reviewing and updating the Biologically Important Areas (BIAs) for marine species, including for the southern right whale. BIAs are spatially defined areas where aggregations of individuals of a species are known to display biologically important behaviour such as breeding, foraging, resting or migration. They are an important consideration in decisions made under national environmental protection law. We wish Mandy well in this exciting role and look forward to having her back on-board next year.
Kasey will continue to manage WhaleFace and provide you with Whale News updates. Contact Kasey at kasey.stamation@delwp.vic.gov.au if you have any WhaleFace questions or want to know more about our research.
Sighting summary by AreaBelow is a list of significant sightings we have received between 9 May– 3 July 2022.
Please note that this sightings summary is preliminary and does not include all data we have received. All data will be finalised at the end of the season when our validating and photo matching/cataloguing takes place. CC = cow:calf UA = unacompanied adult (i.e., not with calf)
Logans Beach/Warrnambool area: 1 UA at Logans Beach on 4 June 2 UA at Logans Beach on 8 June 1 UA near Warrnambool on 10 June 1 CC at Logans Beach on 25 - 29 June 2 UA at Logans Beach on 2 - 3 July
Killarney – Port Fairy: 2 UA at Port Fairy on 9 June 1 UA at Port Fairy on 25 and 27 June
Portland (Yambuk-Bridgewater): 2 UA near Portland on 9 May 1 UA near Portland on 22 May 1-2 UA near Portland on 5 different days between 6-13 June 1 UA near Portland on 26 June 1 CC near Portland on 30 - 3 July
Surf Coast: 2 UA near Princetown on 3 June 1 CC near Port Campbell on 23 June
Gippsland: 1 UA near Wilsons Promontory on 15, 18 and 20 of June 1 UA near Wilsons Promontory on 2 July
Mornington Peninsular area: 1 UA on 17 and 24 June
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Happy whale watching!
Mandy and Kasey
