Whales, Wildlife & Wilderness                                                                                                                                                 Pam & Wayne Osborn

Whales - Research

Whale Meet Again

Curt and Micheline Jenner from the Centre for Whale Research WA (www.cwr.org.au) first photographed this humpback in June 1992 near the Monte Bello Islands off the coast of Western Australia. It was on the northern migration in the company of another adult whale.

 

Pam took this image on October 26 2009 on a routine whale identification shoot off Rottnest Island, Western Australia.

 

A semicircular section of the fluke is missing, most likely from a predator attack. Mich recognised the whale immediately from the fluke injury.

 

At 17 years, it is the longest time between sightings of an individual whale in their catalogue.

 

This time, it was travelling south in a rather boisterous pod of 13 adults as they headed back to feed in Antarctic waters. Long may it plough the seas and "whale' meet again.

Whale Identification Photography

Sometimes you get lucky as with these glass off nights on Exmouth Gulf in Western Australia.

 

Here Pam is shooting whale identification images of humpback whales from our 6.3 metre rigid inflatable boat. It is our workhorse and has travelled  2,500 NM in search of whales.

RV Whale Song

February 26 2011 and Curt and Micheline Jenner's new research vessel, Whale Song arrives for the first time in its home port of Fremantle, Western Australia. Whale Song's delivery voyage was from Malta, past the Cape of Good Hope and across the Indian Ocean.

Satellite Tagging Humpbacks

Whale Song off Ningaloo Reef, Western Australia on a research trip to satellite tag and to take biopsy samples during the northern migration of humpbacks.

Ready on The Bow

Researchers wait for the right timing to apply a satellite tracking tag and obtain a biopsy sample.

Tags Away

A successful satellite tracking tag deployment. The silver and orange tube bouncing away is the shield from the tag. In the lower image the tag's antenna can be clearly seen. The smaller orange tube contains the biopsy sample.

 

The tag is applied high on the dorsal surface as it can only transmit the whale's position when it is out of the water.

Back Again

A tagged whale returns to surface alongside Whale Song.

Whale Identification Photography

Micheline Jenner on the bow of Whale Song.

Sunset on Ningaloo Reef

 

Humpback Whale Tracks

Source: Satellite tracking of northbound humpback whales off Western Australia, Double, Jenner, et al. May 2012.