Calving intervals, long range movements and site fidelity of southern right whales in south-eastern Australia
Have you ever wondered what we learn from your whale sightings? Quite a lot, actually!
We are excited to share that we have just published another peer reviewed paper bringing together data collected along the eastern Australian coast for more than 30 years.
This work details the southern right whale calving history at Logans Beach Nursery ground in Warrnambool between 1980 and 2018. During this time, at least 93 calves have been born and females using this area have an average calving interval of 3.5 years.
This work also highlights what we can learn about the movements of southern right whales using photo-identification data. Southern right whales range far and wide within southern Australian waters, with some whales using both the eastern and western Australian coastline.
In this paper we report on ‘Wilma’, a well-known and much-loved Warrnambool whale who was the first to be identified at Logans Beach in the early 1980s. Wilma calved seven times over a 17-year period (1985-2002) before switching to the Head of the Bight calving grounds in 2005. She has since gone on to calve at the Head of the Bight at least four more times. The reason for her shift, remains a mystery.
Thank you to all the dedicated people that have reported sightings and submitted their photos. Every sighting has helped us build a comprehensive southern right whale catalogue and sightings database for south-eastern Australia.
This work is a clear example of how citizen scientists, departments and researchers can work together to improve knowledge and assist with management of endangered species.
Here is the link to where the article (Watson et al. 2021) can be downloaded from the Journal of Cetacean Research and Management (Vol. 22) IWC | Archive
We still have much to do and much to learn about southern right whales in our waters. Continuing our monitoring and building on our dataset is critical for assessing the recovery of this population and their response to environmental stressors.
Please remember to log your sightings and photos via WhaleFace https://whaleface.swifft.net.au
Happy whale watching!
Mandy and Kasey
Wilma: Taken from The Warrnambool Standard in 1999