Whale watch update
Dear whale watchers,
It’s been a wet and wild few weeks along the coast, with windy conditions making it very difficult for whale watching and photographing. A big thank you needs to go out to all of the citizen scientists who have braved the elements and collected and contributed sightings data into the new online portal hosted by SWIFFT.
The exciting news from the last fortnight is that there is another female Southern Right Whale appearing regularly at Logans Beach, known as “Big Coaming”. This name reflects her distinct callosity pattern. Shown on the ID image below, her ‘coaming’ which sits in front of the blowhole on her upper jaw is quite elongated in shape.
Pattern of callosities on a Southern Right Whale's head. Source: Bannister, 1990
Big Coaming and calf in 2010. Image: Mandy Watson
Big Coaming was first recorded in Victoria in 2001 and has since made regular appearances at Logans Beach. She has raised 4 calves in that time, appearing at Logans with a calf in 2002, 2006, 2010 and 2015. She was sighted regularly with Tripod in 2015 when both females had calves. As Tripod has successfully calved at Logans in 2019, we are hoping Big Coaming will follow suit and will be spotted with a new calf in the coming weeks.
All new sightings data of Southern Right Whales are welcome! If you would like to register and contribute sightings, please visit: https://www.swifft.net.au/srwsmp.
Once registered you can also view images and news updates even if you don’t wish to contribute data yourself.
Images of Southern Right Whales submitted through the SWIFFT portal are used to support DELWP’s photo-identification research project. Identifying images will be included in the South-east Australian Southern Right Whale Photo-Identification Research Program, and sightings records will be added to the department's Victorian Biodiversity Atlas.
We will continue to post regular news updates on the whale season on the News tab of this page.
To bring you up to date, below is a summary of the confirmed sightings received by DELWP from 4th July to the 19th July:
- 4 July Phillip Island 1 x SRW
- 4 July Phillip Island 2 x SRW
- 4 July Portland 1 x SRW
- 8 July Logans Beach 1 x SRW (Big Coaming)
- 9 July Logans Beach 1 x SRW
- 10 July Logans Beach 1 x SRW
- 11 July Logans Beach 1 x SRW
- 12 July Logans Beach 1 x SRW
- 12 July Mallacoota 1 x SRW
- 13 July Logans Beach 1 x SRW
- 15 July Logans Beach 1 x SRW
- 16 July Port Fairy 2 x SRW
- 16 July Cape Nelson 1 x SRW
- 16 July Logans Beach 1 x SRW
- 17 July Logans Beach 1 x SRW
- 17 July Port Phillip Bay 2 x SRW
- 18 July Logans Beach 1 x SRW
SRW = Southern Right Whale
I am interested in hearing about your experience with the SWIFFT portal so far this whale season. Please also let me know if you are not able/would prefer not to use this portal.
Regards,
Mandy