First Arrivals 2023

Southern Right Whale season 2023 has started! After being blessed with a high number of humpback whales migrating through every day, we are excited to report our first sighting of southern right whales in our region!

Since the 20th of May, we have been conducting our weekly plane-based surveys again but were not able to spot any southern rights… until yesterday! We met a beautiful mother and her calf, finally!

Mom looks absolutely massive which for whales is an indication for good health. As she turned around, we could see that she must have given birth not long ago. The calf is still very small and grey, and its tail flukes are still very floppy, too - a sign for its young age as the calves are all folded up when in mom’s belly. What an exciting start for the southern right whales!

A great welcome to these guys and we hope that many other will follow and arrive at our coast soon!

Katy Fannei - Marine Scientist

Researcher - Little White Whale Project

All drone images were taken under DBCA Wildlife License TFA 2022-0079 and UWA animal ethics approval 2021/ET000236.