Scientist says finding white whale like a bus-sized needle in a haystack

ABC NEWS (Australia)

A rare white humpback whale has been spotted cruising off the east coast of Australia, but it's left scientists with more questions than answers.

Transcript

00:00Finding a white whale is like finding a bus-sized needle in a haystack.

00:07It's really rare, and there's only a handful of humpback whales

00:10that are completely white in the world's oceans.

00:13And what we've seen this week, or I should say last week,

00:16is an observation of a white humpback whale

00:18through citizen science efforts, which is great.

00:21And we all were like, well, is this Migaloo?

00:24We were on the search for Migaloo, the white humpback whale.

00:26But it turns out, through the use of citizen science, photo ID,

00:31which means that every single, here's Winston, whale tail is unique to each whale.

00:36So using a platform called Happy Whale,

00:39we were able to identify that it was, in fact, a calf humpback whale

00:44that was born in the kingdom of Tonga last year.

00:48So citizen science effort reporting to Orca,

00:51New South Wales National Parks has led us to make this discovery.

00:54And Happy Whale, the algorithm has enabled us to work out

00:57that this is, in fact, probably a teenager whale, in my opinion,

01:00that has been with its mum probably over the last summer

01:03and made its way up to Australian East Coast.

01:05But why?

01:06So how can you be sure it's the same whale that you saw in Tonga?

01:09Well, I unfortunately didn't see it in Tonga,

01:11but I saw her the other week, last week.

01:13And so it's the tail.

01:15So Winston here is going to pretend to be Siali, which is this female.

01:18So Siali looks like Winston's underside.

01:21And when you see these animals move through the water,

01:24they look like an iceberg.

01:26And every single whale tail is like our fingerprints.

01:29They're unique to each whale.

01:31So what was really cool is that there was photos of Siali

01:34when she was a calf last year,

01:36snapped underwater from the Whale Swim Tourism Programs.

01:39That happens over there.

01:40I'm also leading research here in Tonga,

01:42the Tongan Whale Tourism Project.

01:44And so those photos were then compared to drone vision

01:47captured by an orca member and the drone vision,

01:51as the whale was going down, boop, boop, boop, boop,

01:54we were able to snap a photo and then use the algorithm to go,

01:57wait a second, this whale has this same thing.

01:59It's the same whale.

02:00It's Siali, which was one of two humpback whale calves

02:03that were white born last year in Tonga.

02:05So what would have this whale been up to since being spotted in Tonga?

02:09Presumably it would have gone south in the intervening months.

02:12That's right, James.

02:13It would have stayed with its mum for a period of time

02:16and the mum was also identified.

02:18So she's been first identified in 2003.

02:22So she's, you know, she's a young whale, in my opinion.

02:25So she would have, Siali would have travelled with her mum

02:27from the kingdom of Tonga down to Antarctica

02:29to feed on Antarctic krill, which is a keystone species

02:33everyone today should be talking about in Australia.

02:36Krill, they're important.

02:37And then Siali might have gone,

02:39OK, thanks mum for hanging out.

02:40I'm about a year old now, a yearling,

02:42and I'm going to wave goodbye.

02:43I don't know what they do.

02:45And then Siali would have navigated her way to a journey

02:47that should at this time be leading her down to Antarctic waters.

02:51But why is she going north?

02:53We don't know.

02:54And so we are calling on people,

02:56if you see a white whale to first, number one,

02:58make sure you keep your distance from a vessel,

03:01being on a vessel 500 metres,

03:02and if a drone, 100 metres, let authorities know.

03:06So New South Wales National Parks,

03:08if she goes into Queensland, let the government know.

03:10Or let community members like Orca know,

03:13because these community networks are incredibly important

03:16for our search of an animal the size of a school bus.

03:19That's also a needle in a haystack as it's in Australian waters.

03:23Are you worried an animal as rare as this could get harassed?

03:26Because, you know, you see a lot of humpbacks off the coast

03:28at this time of the year, but you don't see many white ones.

03:31You don't see many white ones.

03:33So I'm sure that there's a lot of photographers out there

03:35wanting to get the shot, like has happened with Migaloo.

03:39So this is just a polite reminder.

03:41If you see her, she doesn't need any more stresses that she needs.

03:44I saw her on Friday off Sydney.

03:46She was frolicking, as some would say, breaching, peck slapping.

03:51It was so cool to see her.

03:52But we just make sure, if you're enjoying her,

03:55just keep it from a distance.

03:56And my main concern as a scientist is,

03:58why is she going north?

03:59She will be losing body condition.

04:01She already looks a little thin.

04:03So Winston here is a very voluptuous shape.

04:05As they migrate, they will lose body condition,

04:08so they'll become thinner like this.

04:10We want her to be turning south, not north,

04:13and hopefully making their way down to feed

04:16or opportunistically feeding in Australian waters,

04:19which you know does happen.

04:20But she needs to be putting on the ultimate Christmas dinner

04:23for the whole of summer, so she puts on a lot of weight

04:26so she can make her journey up to Australian waters.

04:29Or Tonga.

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