STUDYING SOUTHERN RIGHT WHALES

Nineteenth century whaling almost wiped out all southern right whales in Australian waters. An estimated 55,000 to 70,000 cruised the Southern Hemisphere in the late 1700s. By the 1920s, fewer than 300 remained. Now listed as endangered under the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation (EPBC) Act 1999, protection measures have seen numbers increase to an estimated 3,500 individuals. But the recovery has not been consistent across the species range and some whale populations remain at considerable risk. We also know very little about their migratory and feeding habitat, and calving areas have been poorly studied. Enter WWF and the Murdoch University Cetacean Research Unit, which is using innovative technology to do some clever detective work. The research team is using unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs/drones) to measure the body condition of southern right whales off the Head of the Bight in South Australia, an important nursing ground. We're keen to better understand how the health of this population relates to reproduction, calf condition and growth after long migrations from the Southern Ocean.

UAVs flying above surfacing whales are taking aerial photographs, from which we'll extract measurements to estimate an index for body condition. This will be assessed in relation to the success of raising calves. Murdoch University has also created a smart model to predict the human impacts on baleen whales such as southern right whales, and this will form a baseline for future work that monitors krill stocks using whale body conditions. 

Southern right whales face a number of threats, including the risks posed by shipping traffic, naval activities, oil and gas exploration, unregulated whale watching and the depletion of fisheries.