Whale News - November 2021

In this month’s update, we’re pleased to share with you, summaries of the photo-ID matching results from the 2019 and 2020 seasons. Matching is carried out at the end of the whale season after all sightings have been submitted and compiled.

Due the fantastic response to the WhaleFace citizen science program, we have seen a significant increase in the volume of data to work through. We’re currently working through photos from the 2021 season and hope to share the results early in 2022, so stay tuned for next year’s Whale News editions.

In the meantime, if you would like to see where whales were spotted during 2021, check out our interactive sightings map by logging into WhaleFace and going to the Sighting Map tab.

Remember WhaleFace is the official repository for all Southern Right Whale sightings and images in Victoria. All validated data goes into DELWP’s databases and is shared and cross-matched with the national Southern Right Whale catalogue (ARWPIC). Your contributions help with management decisions for the protection of Southern Right Whale in Victorian waters and play a vital part in research into the recovery of the Southern Right Whale in eastern Australia.

What is Photo-ID?

Photo-ID is a powerful non-invasive tool for gaining information on migratory whale species, which are typically difficult to study. It allows us to follow individual life histories and better understand population dynamics such as the size of the population, its distribution and whether it is changing. This research is critical for conservation management of the Southern Right Whale in south-east Australia.    

Photo-ID matching and cataloguing is a time-consuming process that requires specialist skills and lots of experience. Prior to matching, several curation steps must be undertaken, including image sorting, grading and labelling. Matching is then carried out by searching the catalogue for the same or similar whales. When searching, each whale’s callosity pattern is coded, and the catalogue searched for whales with similar codes. This system eliminates whales with features that are different to the one you are looking for. Our south-east Australian catalogue known as SEA SRW PIC, contains thousands of images of over 450 individual whales. It can take up to two hours to process each sighting.

The cataloguing process determines whether a whale is a re-sight of a whale already in the catalogue, or a new whale not previously catalogued. Once matching is complete, new whales are added and information on each sighting is included.

2019 and 2020 Photo-Id matching results

In 2019, we identified and catalogued a total of 37 whales:

• 8 x cow:calf pairs, including 5 new females and 3 re-sights (whales already catalogued). See table below for the resighting history of the three known females
• 29 x unaccompanied adults (whales without calves) including 26 new whales and 3 re-sights (SE1816, SE1237, SE1008).

SE1410 - Black Bonnet

SE0102 - Big Coaming

SE0201 - Tripod

First Sighted

2014

2001

1995

Location first sighted

Coorong, SA

Logans Beach

Logans Beach

Number of Years Sighted

2

6

7

Number of calves

1

5

6

Location with calf

Logans Beach

Logans Beach

Logans Beach

Distinguishing features

Bonnet callosity almost completely absent

Large coaming callosity

Three island callosities in tripod pattern

SE1011

First Sighted

2010

Location first sighted

southern NSW

Number of Years Sighted

3

Number of calves

3

Location with calf

Southern NSW

Distinguishing features

no lip callosities, indent on left side of bonnet