Linking physical oceanographic variables with whale distribution is the latest technique the Centre is using to guide industry and government in regards to developing deep water areas never previously examined for cetaceans.

Industry leaders INPEX, Woodside Energy and Shell have help fund the Centre’s ambitious plans to begin mapping the deep off-shore waters of Western Australia’s continental slope so that cetacean distribution, and environmental conditions that may favour cetaceans, can be factored into decision making processes well in advance of any potentially disruptive developement activities taking place.

The Centre is about to begin a new phase of exploratory research in Australian waters. Little to nothing is known of whale and dolphin distribution in Australian EEZ waters beyond the coastal zone – a problem that must be overcome if Australia is to be continued to be seen as a world leader in cetacean research and management.

CWR’s strength lies in its ability to conduct boat based off-shore research. Replacing the RV WhaleSong with a larger more ocean capable vessel is a necessary step forward if we are to keep pace with man’s need for off-shore resources. We believe that knowledge is our best tool to protect the whales’ critical habitats.

R/V WhaleSong II – August 2006

S 21° 54.6′ E 113° 58.1′ (MAP)

WhaleSong II’s first commission was to go back to an area off Dampier where our Australian research began over 17 years ago. Santos Ltd. was exploring an area near the continental shelf edge and the Department of Environment and Heritage was concerned about the timing of the survey in relation to the peak of the northbound humpback whale migration. Based on our studies off NW Cape, CWR advised both groups that the seismic survey should end before July 10th in order to minimize any potential for impact.

However, we also commented that we had no knowledge of the position of the migratory path this far off-shore at that latitude. Santos was keen to help determine this so, together with Dr. Rob McCauley and his team at Curtin University, we began a combined aerial, acoustic and vessel based monitoring programme designed not only to determine the position of the northern migratory path in relation to the Santos lease, but to also, at Santos’ suggestion, directly measure the response of migrating humpback whales to an operating seismic vessel.

This is one of the burning questions in the management of human activities in relation to cetaceans – how exactly are whales affected by an operating seismic vessel? Unfortunately we were not to discover this during this study since a combination of the seismic survey being non-central to the migratory path and its timing planned to be prior to the peak, resulted in too few whales to base any conclusions on.

This type of study will no doubt be repeated over upcoming years as we attempt to determine whether whales can co-exist with man’s need for oil.

Current Location of R/V WhaleSong

S 31° 59.8′ E 115° 32.9′ (MAP)

Our 2005 Blue Whale season is quickly coming to an end after 4 months of intensive effort. Unusually windy weather kept us crunching data, sheltered behind Rottnest Island for most of January and even into February. March saw the return of good weather and April has been superb as well. We’ve sighted 69 pygmy blue whales so far this season, photo-identifying 41 of these. Thus far 15 resights have been found in the catalogue with this seasons whales, greatly increasing our understanding of the frequency and overall time that these whales use the Perth Canyon.

In early April, CWR Principal Investigator Curt Jenner and Australian Antarctic Division Principal Research Scientist Dr. Nick Gales, traveled to Portland, Victoria, to assist Dr. Peter Gill of Australocetus Research with a new satellite tagging project on a group of pygmy blue whales that has been the focus of his PhD study for the past 6 years.

The satellite tagging project has been developing quickly over the past 5 years spearheaded by Gales and Jenner. Technician Eric King and Gales at the AAD have recently developed new tag launching equipment, and refined the already sophisticated electronics casing, to allow the tags to be applied from greater distances with minimal disturbance to the animals.

The result has been what we have been waiting for – 100% success from the first 4 deployments!

The Team, which included Dr. Jason Gedamke, also from the AAD, headed for Perth immediately after deploying Gills’ 4 tags. After two more days of effort in the Perth Canyon, and having been joined by Micheline Jenner, we had 4 more tags away – 2 of which were applied in a manner that will result in a delayed start time. This means that battery life won’t be used up while the whales feed in the Perth Canyon area, an area that we already know is critical to pygmy blue whales because individual whales feed there for 2 to 3 weeks each year.

The objective of CWR’s tagging project, as of that of Australocetus, is to determine the whales’ northern migratory path and eventually a calving ground, if such a thing exists for pygmy blue whales. Unfortunately the other 2 tags deployed in the Perth Canyon failed, but given the excellent status of the attached tags, we remain optimistic about realizing our goals. For updates on the tracks of the Perth Canyon and Bonney Upwelling whales go here.

S 31° 59.8′ E 115° 32.9′ (click to see our Current Location)

Our 2005 Blue Whale season is quickly coming to an end after 4 months of intensive effort. Unusually windy weather kept us crunching data, sheltered behind Rottnest Island for most of January and even into February. March saw the return of good weather and April has been superb as well. We’ve sighted 69 pygmy blue whales so far this season, photo-identifying 41 of these. Thus far 15 resights have been found in the catalogue with this seasons whales, greatly increasing our understanding of the frequency and overall time that these whales use the Perth Canyon.

In early April, CWR Principal Investigator Curt Jenner and Australian Antarctic Division Principal Research Scientist Dr. Nick Gales, traveled to Portland, Victoria, to assist Dr. Peter Gill of Australocetus Research with a new satellite tagging project on a group of pygmy blue whales that has been the focus of his PhD study for the past 6 years.

The satellite tagging project has been developing quickly over the past 5 years spearheaded by Gales and Jenner. Technician Eric King and Gales at the AAD have recently developed new tag launching equipment, and refined the already sophisticated electronics casing, to allow the tags to be applied from greater distances with minimal disturbance to the animals.

The result has been what we have been waiting for – 100% success from the first 4 deployments!

The Team, which included Dr. Jason Gedamke, also from the AAD, headed for Perth immediately after deploying Gills’ 4 tags. After two more days of effort in the Perth Canyon, and having been joined by Micheline Jenner, we had 4 more tags away – 2 of which were applied in a manner that will result in a delayed start time. This means that battery life won’t be used up while the whales feed in the Perth Canyon area, an area that we already know is critical to pygmy blue whales because individual whales feed there for 2 to 3 weeks each year.

The objective of CWR’s tagging project, as of that of Australocetus, is to determine the whales’ northern migratory path and eventually a calving ground, if such a thing exists for pygmy blue whales. Unfortunately the other 2 tags deployed in the Perth Canyon failed, but given the excellent status of the attached tags, we remain optimistic about realizing our goals. For updates on the tracks of the Perth Canyon and Bonney Upwelling whales go here.

Current Location of R/V WhaleSong

S 31° 59.8′ E 115° 32.9′ (MAP)

WhaleSong and crew have just sailed down the Western Australian coast, making our fastest passage ever (eight days!) into the southerly winds, and is preparing for the 2005 blue whale season off Rottnest Island near Perth, Western Australia. Planning details with the Australian Defense Department, the primary funding body for the study for the past 3 seasons, are almost complete and the Centre is looking forward to another productive season.

At the moment we’re anchored off Rottnest Island analysing our humpback season data and preparing for a February 01 start to the blue whale season. The Australian Defense Department are interested in the pygmy blue whales that feed in the Perth Canyon for a number of reasons. These reasons revolve around the fact that the Perth Canyon is the closest deep water region to Australia’s main naval base in Western Australia at Garden Island.

John Bannister (Team scientist for the Western Australian Blue Whale Project) discovered a congregation of blue whales near the Canyon in 1994 and eventually secured funding from Environment Australia (now Department of Environment and Heritage) to conduct a pilot study over 2 seasons, beginning in 2000. Once the team established that there were consistent and relatively high densities of blue whale sightings in their main exercise area, the Defense Department established a proactive partnership with a consortium of research groups in 2002. This research project has made great strides forward in understanding the how, when and why’s of pygmy blue whales’ usage of this critical feeding area (read more). The Defense Department is justifiably proud of their contribution to this work thus far in the study, and has been a role model for other agencies striving to comply with the Australian EBPC Act.

RV Whalesong

S 21° 30.0′ E 114° 02.0′

WhaleSong is currently surveying off Tantabiddi on the west side of North West Cape, Western Australia. CWR is conducting a series of vessel base surveys for BHP Billiton Petroleum and Woodside Energy as part of a cooperative strategy to collect baseline data prior to potential development in the area. Both companies permitted lease areas overlap portions of the humpback whale, and possibly blue whale, migratory areas creating a need to more fully understand the dynamics of these populations from season to season.

At the moment we’re based off Ningaloo Reef, Western Australia, monitoring the humpback whale migration past a series of off-shore oil leases. The work is funded by Woodside Energy and BHP Billiton Petroleum as part of their requirements for Australia’s EPBC Act (http://www.deh.gov.au/index.html)

CWR initiated the study in 2000 as part of an EIS (Environmental Impact Statement) that Woodside was preparing for the federal government prior to seeking approval for anchoring an FPSO (Floating Production Storage and Offloading) facility near the 500m depth contour. Originally carried out as a 12 month series of dedicated aerial surveys recording all mega fauna species, the program continued for a second 12 months, providing scientists and the federal government with an excellent start to understanding basic mega fauna distribution and abundance in the area.

Now in our fourth season of baseline data collection, we’ve switched from aerial surveys to vessel based surveys. The aerial surveys allowed us to create some very accurate migratory path models for the North West Cape region which we would like to be able to duplicate, and add detail to, with vessel surveys. If this is logistically and statistically possible we will be able to economically test this model at various locations along the WA coast where management blindspots currently exist. The more areas we test and fit to the model, the easier it becomes to predict the spatial and temporal boundaries of humpback whale migration all along the Western Australian coast. It’s almost like joining the dots!

Not only humpback whale movements are of interest to the CWR or management bodies. We also map positions of all encountered cetacean species so that critical habitats for many species will gradually become known.

Off the shelf break last week, for the first time in Western Australia, we sighted a pod of approximately 50 pan-tropical spotted dolphins (Stenella attenuata) and had a possible sighting of a single southern bottlenose whale (Hyperoodon planifrons). These sorts of rare sightings and identifications are not usually possible from aircraft traveling at survey speed (120 knots) and strengthen the argument to survey areas by vessel.

Later this season we will trial an assortment of drifting and towed passive acoustic arrays as a means of augmenting the visual surveys. Stay tuned for updates as to which systems work best!