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Curt Jenner is from the Centre for Whale Research, Western Australia.

“It is very disappointing to see humpbacks included in any kind of take, whether it’s for commercial, scientific or other reasons.

Humpbacks are a species the world has been watching recover for a long time. They are an iconic and flagship species that symbolize a growing human understanding of, and respect for, the ocean.

To put them on a hunting list is a step back for any country and it’s a very disappointing outcome.”

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Adrian Peace is an Associate Professor in Anthropology at the University of Adelaide.

“Over the past couple of weeks, questions of science have clearly played a very secondary role indeed. International and domestic politics have been far more important.

The political differences between anti-whaling ranks that were previously kept under control have now broken out into the open, and what was a relatively united front is now very fractured.

As a result of fractures and fissions within the anti-whaling camp, the groups involved have now turned direction towards their domestic politics, rather than addressing questions of science.

Minister Garrett’s triumphalist rhetoric is clearly aimed at influencing the current Australian political scene in presenting a delay over commercial whaling as a significant environmental win.

Another significant outcome is that Iceland has become the leading hawk within the whaling movement, more so than Japan. Iceland will likely engage in more sustained whaling activity from now on.”

Several pics taken by the researchers can be downloaded below (click on the image for high res). These pics were taken on Sunday 19 July 2009.

A new born humpback whale calf is lifted clear of the water to take its very first breath off Ningaloo Reef. Please credit: Micheline Jenner, Centre for Whale Research.

The tiny humpback whale calf named Tantabiddi blows water out of its blowholes as it practices the art of breathing. Please credit: Micheline Jenner, Centre for Whale Research (CWR).

For other shots of the calf, click here (ftp site – right click files and ‘save target as’). If you are encountering problems when downloading these images, contact us on (08) 8207 7415 or email us. Please credit the Centre for Whale Research (WA) if any of these images are used.

A short low res video (.avi) is also available on the ftp site. The video is not great quality but you can clearly see the baby swimming in the first five seconds or so of the clip.

The researchers, Curt and Micheline Jenner from the Centre for Whale Research (WA), can be reached on 0429 922 994.

Press Release issued by the Centre for Whale Research (Western Australia)
July 23, 2009

A Whale Biologists’ Holy Grail

Centre for Whale Research scientists Curt and Micheline Jenner were in for a non-typical “day at the office” last week as they finished a survey and headed into the Tantabiddi entrance to Ningaloo Reef, Western Australia. “We had sighted a large single humpback in the passage and had slowed down to collect photo-identification images of it, noting that it was quite large and possibly a pregnant female” said Curt.

This in itself was not unusual as pregnant females heading north along the reef at this time of year are commonly sighted as they head for the Kimberley calving grounds some over 1000 km to the north to give birth. As Micheline began the process of photographing left and right side of the whale and its tail fluke for the identification catalogue she noticed that, contrary to what we had originally thought, there was a calf with the mother whale. These photos later revealed a large amount of blood in the water – a sure sign of a typical mammalian birth.

As they watched, it was apparent that the calf was struggling to stay at the surface to breathe and was swimming around in tight, clock-wise circles with only the tip of its snout protruding. It was amazing as we saw the cow dive below the surface, only to reappear underneath the calf, lifting it completely clear of the water on her upper jaw. “The cow held the calf gently in this position for about 10 seconds while it took what we now understand to be its first breath of life”, Micheline enthused.

This breath indeed filled the calf with life and as soon as the cow lowered its newborn back into the water, its little tail flukes began to beat like a wind-up toy being lowered into the bath. Before the cow could intervene the calf headed straight over to the WhaleSong II for a close swim past, much to the amazement and delight of the scientists aboard.

“It was surprising to see how small and skinny the little whale looked”, recalls Curt, “We know that humpback whale calves are born almost blubberless, but until you see the little fellows, it’s hard to understand how vulnerable they actually are in their harsh environment.”

Most humpback whale calves in the Western Australian population are thought to be born in the warm waters of the Kimberley near Camden Sound. At this time of year, and into August, the water temperatures are typically 4-5 degrees warmer that what is found at Ningaloo. Scientists agree that this temperature may make quite a difference to energy requirements for new borns and in some cases, may even make a difference to their survival.

So why would a pregnant female give birth to her calf in such relatively cold water? Was she too young a mother to know where to go to find warmer water? Did she leave her departure from the feeding grounds too late and simply run out of time to get all the way up the coast? Or are there some activities that humans are doing that disturbed her progress up the coast? These are the types of questions that keep the team at the Centre for Whale Research very busy with not only humpback whales, but blue whale, sperm whales and the numerous other whale and dolphin species that populate our pristine coastline.

That day watching a calf being born was a special treat for the researchers and a “holy grail” for whale science as the birthing process has only rarely been witnessed and described. “We feel awed and privileged to have finally seen this spectacle after over 20 years of research”, says Curt,” we just hope that human activities haven’t precipitated a premature birth and that this little whale that we’ve named Tantabiddi has a long and fruitful life.”

The report summarises existing scientific knowledge on the global conservation status of cetaceans (whales, dolphins and porpoises) and the threats to their survival, and reviews the economic value of cetaceans and their non-consumptive use through whale watching activities.

The full report is available from the Department of the Environment, Water, Heritage and the Arts here: http://www.environment.gov.au/coasts/publications/global-cetacean-summary.html

Feel free to use these quotes in your stories. Any further comments will be posted here. If you would like to speak to an expert, please don’t hesitate to contact us on (08) 8207 7415 or by email.

Dr Peter Harrison is Director of the Whale Research Centre at Southern Cross University. Peter provided research and analysis to the Global Cetacean Summary Report.

“The Global Cetacean Summary Report, launched by Minister Garrett today in preparation for taking that to the International Whaling Commission meeting in Madeira, Portugal next week, is an important document because it highlights just how tenuous many of the species of whales, dolphins and porpoises are.

What we’ve discovered is that based on the world’s most up to date and comprehensive accounts with the International Union for Conservation of Nature and the Cetacean Specialist Group, is that many species are threatened.

So far, out of the 86 cetacean species that include all the world’s whales, dolphins, and porpoises that are recognised at the moment, 14 of those species, or 16% are listed as threatened, in the vulnerable, endangered, or critically endangered categories. Another 5 species are listed as near-threatened, and only 22 species are listed as ‘least concern’, which means that the populations are substantial enough so that we can assume that those species are not faced with extinction in the near future.

A really important part of the information shows that more than half of the species are listed as ‘data deficient’, which means we don’t have enough content of scientific information to know whether or not they’re safe and secure, or whether in fact some of those species are also threatened.

Many of the species that are currently recognised as threatened have been impacted in previous centuries by over-exploitation through commercial whaling, and that remains a key cause of concern if whaling was to resume and have substantial catch rates again.

An increasing problem which is important for nearly all species on the list and for most cetaceans generally, is fishing interaction, and particularly unintentional by-catch, where whales, dolphins and porpoises get entangled in fishing gear and end up dying as a result of that.

Fishing by-catch, particularly from gill nets, is critically important in terms of the survival of many of the smaller, in-shore coastal dolphins and porpoise species, and many of the threatened cetaceans have fishing as the primary threat to their existence in the future.”

Dr Charlie Huveneers is a shark ecologist with SARDI Aquatic Science and lecturer in the School of Biological Sciences at Flinders University, Adelaide.

Why so many attacks?

“One of the main reasons why shark attacks seem to increase each year is due to the number of interactions in summer being higher than in winter. As a result, the smaller time periods between each attack during summer that occurs after a period of limited interactions during winter might suggest that interactions are increasing. However, data provided by the Australian Shark Attack File currently indicates that the number of interactions is stable at about 14 interactions per year (including non-injured, injured and fatal) with the number of attacks going up to 22 in 2004

The higher number of interactions between sharks and humans during summer can be explained by two main reasons:
– As the weather and water warms up, more people undertake water activities and are likely to see sharks/be victim of a shark attack.
– A few sharks species including potentially dangerous sharks (e.g., tiger and bull sharks) are found in water temperature that only occur in the highly populated Central NSW during summer. As a result, these sharks can mostly be found in Central NSW during summertime only. This does not mean that shark populations are increasing but that their distribution includes highly populated areas during summer.

The combination of this distribution change and higher number of people in the water increases the chances of seeing sharks or being victim of a shark attack.

How can we stop this happening?

“Currently, the only methods that will protect humans 100% from shark attacks are:
– Stay out of the water;
– Swim within pools with shark exclusion barriers (e.g., in Clifton Garden). However, these nets are very expensive to maintain and only work in low energy (non-surf) situations like harbours or estuaries. These would not be applicable to surf beaches like Bondi or Avalon.

Today, the search for an ideal shark repellent is still ongoing. In the early 1970s, the discovery of pardaxin, a natural shark repellent secreted by the Red Sea Moses sole, Pardachirus marmoratus was investigated. The surfactant-like nature of pardaxin led investigators to test the potential of various industrial surfactants as possible repellents. Some research in the Bahamas based on semiochemicals has shown that sharks react to the smell of rotting shark carcass and is trialling certain chemical extracts out of dead shark carcasses, purifying them and testing them on reef sharks. Electrical devices that disturb a shark’s delicate lateral line system also seem to be at least partially effective. Magnetic shark repellents utilising permanent magnets, which exploit the sensitivity of the electrical receptors in sharks is also being studied. Protective devises include spear-guns, power heads, electric dart, toxic syringe, gas injection, plastic bags (Johnson Shark Screen) metal cages, metal suits, various coloured and patterned wetsuits, shark mesh gill nets, shark dive cages, acrylic dive cages, acoustic signal generators, electrified underwater barriers and air bubble barriers have all been tested over the years with limited success. However, trials are still underway and some applications have potential in some situations but the goal of the perfect shark repellent still remains elusive.

To some extent, people have to realise that they are entering an environment which can be dangerous. Each year, an average of about 80 people drown around Australia (over 5 times the number of shark interactions and over 40 times the number of shark fatalities). However, people accept that this is a risk they are willing to take when they enter the water. While the risk of dying from a shark attack is miniscule in comparison to the risk of drowning, people are still more scared of a shark attack than heavy surf. This shows that the hysteria around sharks is driven by fear more than by logic. However, there are ways to minimise the already small risk of being victim of a shark attack:

1. Swim at beaches patrolled by Surf Live Savers (they are there to keep an eye on your safety).
2. Do not swim, dive or surf where dangerous sharks are known to congregate.
3. Always swim, dive or surf with other people (the mere presence of a companion may deter a potentially attack and your companion can assist you if you get into trouble or are bitten by a shark).
4. Do not swim in dirty or turbid water (there is little chance of seeing a shark in these conditions).
5. Avoid swimming well offshore, near deep channels or along drop-offs to deeper water (sharks are more likely to inhabit the deeper water).
6. Avoid entering the ocean near a river mouth, especially after a rainstorm (rain can wash potential food items into the sea that might attract fish and sharks).
7. If schooling fish congregate in large numbers, leave the water (sharks can be feeding on the baitfish schools).
8. Look carefully before jumping into the water from a boat or wharf (people have jumped on top of sharks).
9. If possible do not swim at dusk, dawn or at night (sharks are more active during these times).
10. Do not swim near people fishing or spear fishing (fishing can attract sharks).
11. Dolphins in the area do not indicate the absence of sharks (dolphins and sharks regularly feed together).
12. Wearing shiny jewellery can reflect light that resembles the sheen of fish scales (sharks can be attracted to the reflected light).
13. If a shark is sighted in the area leave the water as quickly and calmly as possible.”

Recent comments by fishers that new quotas are allowing shark populations to increase

“The fishing quotas imposed by NSW DPI are recent quotas and have only been in place for a short amount of time. Because of the slow reproductive rate of most shark species, it is biologically impossible that adult shark populations of potentially dangerous sharks have increased or recovered in such short amount of time. Furthermore, the new quotas were imposed as a result of a very recent increase of large shark catches (3-4 years ago). The new quota combining sandbars and large sharks is still higher than the historical catches for large sharks. As such, the current quotas is allowing more sharks to be caught than historically. Finally, the species targeted by this fisheries are mostly not dangerous to humans, with only a small proportion of dangerous sharks caught.”

Dr Mark Meekan is a fish biologist at the Australian Institute of Marine Science in the Northern Territory.

“There is no evidence that shark numbers are increasing – we could simply be seeing more sharks closer to shore this year where there is more chance that they could interact with people. Even with number of incidents this year, the chance of attack is very small – you are many times more likely to be injured in a car accident driving to the beach than you are to be attacked by a shark

It is futile to try to hunt down the sharks that make these attacks. They are likely to be long gone by the time we try to do this.

Follow some simple rules to reduce your chance of attack. Don’t swim at dawn and dusk when light levels are low and sharks might mistake you for prey. Swim between the flags so that if you do get into trouble, there is someone to help you get out.”

Associate Professor Mike Bennett is a lecturer in the School of Biomedical Sciences at the University of Queensland. His research focuses on shark and ray biology.

Why so many this year?

“There is no evidence of a real spike in the number of shark attacks this year beyond a natural fluctuation in numbers that would be expected when dealing with events of this nature. While the recent incidents involving sharks and people in the water are extremely unfortunate, they remain very uncommon. To place these attacks in perspective – there are over 180 shark species in Australian waters of which a very few, perhaps only a handful of species, are known to have attacked humans. Given the number of people in the water each day around the coastline of Australia and the number of sharks in our waters only emphasises how unusual an occurrence this really is.

Many of the attacks on swimmers or surfers appear to have been exploratory, with the shark breaking off the attack soon after initial contact. The best advice is commonly repeated….Do not enter the water around dawn and dusk. Avoid areas where there is bait, live fishes or feeding dolphins in the water. Avoid swimming in turbid (dirty) water or areas bounded by deep water channels. These are where or when potentially dangerous sharks are most likely to be feeding.”

How can we stop this happening – eg shark nets, shark patrols, increased shark fishing?

“Risk minimisation is the best approach, both on the part of the individual and of the authorities. However, shark patrols are of limited practical value, as identification of potentially dangerous sharks is all but impossible. Increased shark fishing is not an answer. The species of potential danger are not normally the target of commercial fishers, as heavy metal levels in the flesh renders it unmarketable, or they are protected by legislation due to the effects of previous over-fishing. The reality is that the human threat to sharks is orders of magnitude greater than the shark threat to humans, with hundreds of millions of sharks killed every year. Shark nets already actively fish for sharks, but unfortunately also catch and kill a lot of harmless species including dolphins, whales, turtles and many species of fish including the iconic manta ray. Expansion of this scheme would undoubtedly be to the detriment of many non-target species.”

The discovery of 50 beached sperm whales in the northwest of Tasmania, sparked rescue attempts by Wildlife officials this morning. The Australian Science Media Centre has gathered comments from experts as to why this strange behaviour occurs.

Feel free to use these quotes in your stories. If you would like to speak to an expert, please don’t hesitate to contact us on (08) 8207 7415 or by email.

Dr Catherine Kemper is a marine mammal expert from the Australian Antarctic Division

“The word ‘stranding’ means many things. To most people, it means live animals on the beach but to a scientist is encompasses anything from a carcass washing up to ‘mass strandings’ of many live animals. Whale and dolphin strandings have been happening for thousands of years. We have evidence of 2000-year-old strandings of sperm whales just north of Adelaide. Aboriginal people used to take advantage of stranded whales for food.

Mass strandings do not occur in all species of whales and dolphins, just the ones that are highly social and that live in the open ocean. The reasons for this is probably that these species are not used to being near shore and their social behaviour involves ‘following the leader’ even if it means to their death. (This is putting a human context on the situation, I know, but it helps the lay person to understand a complex system.) Some of the species that tend to mass strand are; sperm whales, common dolphins, offshore bottlenose dolphins, pilot whales.

The cause of most strandings of live animals is usually not known. There is some evidence that the earth’s magnetic fields may disrupt the navigation ability of some whales in some places. Tasmania and New Zealand have many mass strandings because the open ocean species live close to the coast (ie. the continental shelf is very narrow) and the coast is complex with many bays and inlets. South Australia has few mass strandings (thank goodness) because the shelf is very broad and the coast rather simple.

Recent evidence from some strandings, particularly the deep-diving beaked whales, shows that low-frequency and powerful underwater sounds can result in animals stranding. The theory is that they surface too quickly, probably having become seriously disturbed by the sounds. US naval operations have been implicated in these events. These sounds can also cause physical damage to the inner ear. There is no evidence of this in Australia but then little work has been done here.

South Australia has anything from 50 to 80 reported strandings each year so these events are not unusual. The cause of death of these animals is usually unknown but we investigate as many as possible and find disease, birthing problems, old age, entanglement in fishing gear, boat collisions, intentional killing by humans and others are the major causes. I have summarised the data for South Australia (no one else has done this in Australia) and found that 50 % were unknown cause of death, 20% were unintentional human-related (eg. entanglement, boat collisions etc.) and 5% were intentional killings (illegal, of course)”

Dr Nick Gales is a marine mammal expert from the Australian Antarctic Division

“We know that sperm whales live predominantly in the waters off the shelf break, in the deep sloping waters offshore and they feed in those waters. When you get events like that very low pressure system passing to the south of Tasmania that we had over the last 2 days, with storm force winds, where those waves reach the shallow waters, it becomes incredibly mixed up with sediments. This becomes incredibly confusing for animals that use sound in the water column to navigate in the shallower waters. On those occasions, animals that are bound together very tightly by social bonds like this predominantly female group of sperm whales and their young, tend to move as one organism virtually, and if navigation is confused, on occasion a mistake will be made where they end up on shore. I think this is just what happened on this occasion.

There is no real way of predicting these except maybe a slightly higher incidence in some areas through confusing the symmetry or on stormy events when whales happen to be in close and their prey is in close. The main advances in science have been in trying to deal with those animals once they are ashore, understanding a lot more about the animals from access to them and most recently in actually tracking animals that are able to be refloated and pushed out to sea to look at survival, the movement of these animals and to improve our knowledge of their offshore habitat. Refloating sperm whales is almost impossible, it has been done on a few occasions, in Tasmania mainly, but they are so large and so difficult to refloat that actually returning sperm whales is quite a rare event.”

Associate Professor Rob Harcourt is Director of Marine Science and a Senior Lecturer at Macquarie University

“Sperm whales are deep-diving pelagic social whales, they swim in groups of females, many of which are related, and they are deep-divers that hunt mainly squid, but they do eat fish and a few other things as well. Therefore they are usually found far offshore, except in areas where the water is really deep close to shore.

But in particular years, the line of productive waters, which a combination of large-scale weather systems and weather frontal systems, is closer to the Australian Coast, and in those years there is a greater frequency of strandings, of all sorts of Pelagic cetaceans.

The thing about these animals is that they are large, highly-social animals, that stay together for decades and normally the only encounters they have with firm substances like the ocean floor is when they are diving deep down to feed. So they can get confused and they tend to stick together so if one of ends up coming in too close to shore, they all tend to do the same thing. A normal response to stress at sea, if they are being predated by killer whales for example, is to flee, so that’s why they tend to strand.

It is very sad but we get a huge amount of information as a result of these strandings, a lot of information about how long they live, what they eat, and their relationships within the pods comes from these stranding events. So even though it’s a tragedy for individual whales, its opened up a window into how we understand these animals.”

Dr Karen Evans is part of the Pelagic Fisheries and Ecosystems Stream of CSIRO Marine & Atmospheric Research and is a Research Associate with the University of Tasmania. She has conducted research looking at why whales beach themselves.

“Strandings of whales, both single and mass, have occurred for centuries. Ascertaining the causes of whale strandings has perplexed both the general community and scientists for many years. Why should an animal completely adapted to the marine environment end up on the beach? For some animals we can determine the cause: old age, disease, injury, chase or harassment; but for many the question as to why they stranded remains unanswered. Theories as to why whales strand abound, but little quantitative research has been conducted into this, one of the most puzzling of biological mysteries, and to date no research have identified causes common across all unanswered cases.

We analysed a long term data set of whale strandings in south-east Australia (Tasmania and Victoria) and observed a clear circa-10 year periodicity in the number of whales that stranded each year. When aspects of the regions climate were investigated, this quasi-decadal cycle in the number of whales that strand was found to coincide with the regional persistence of both zonal (westerly) and meridional (southerly) winds. Periods of maximum whale strandings occurred during times of persistent westerly and southerly winds. During periods of persistent westerly and southerly winds colder, nutrient rich waters are driven closer to the south-east region of Australia, potentially enhancing biological activity in the water column and the abundance of prey in coastal regions. These findings suggest that climate, and its links to higher coastal productivity in years of strong winds, may provide a powerful distal influence on whale strandings by re-distributing whales into coastal regions (as a result of a change of prey distributions), increasing the number of whales available to strand in the region. Our study provides the first clear test of existing hypotheses for this mysterious behaviour, and provides managers with a powerful predictive tool to enable them to prepare for years of peak stranding activity.”