Trish Franklin

Southern Cross University

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Wally Franklin

Southern Cross University

Peter Harrison

Southern Cross University

Lyndon Brooks

Southern Cross University

Daniel Burns

United States Geological Survey

Claire Garrigue

University of New Caledonia

Phil Clapham

Vashon Partners (United States)

Rochelle Constantine

University of Auckland

M. Michael Poole

Migration Institute of Australia

P. R. Baverstock

Southern Cross University

Jooke Robbins

Center for Coastal Studies

Cooperative Institutions

University of Auckland

Migration Institute of Australia

Southern Cross University

NOAA National Marine Fisheries Service

Cascadia Research Collective

Center for Whale Research

Oregon State University

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration

Australian Antarctic Division

STMicroelectronics (France)

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Movement of two humpback whales (Megaptera novaeangliae) satellite-radio tagged off Eden, NSW and matched by photo-identification with the Hervey Bay catalogue

IWC Journal of Cetacean Research and Management (2023)

Wally Franklin Trish Franklin Virginia Andrews‐Goff David J. Paton Michael C. Double

Photo-identification studies of humpback whales off eastern Australia show low levels of movement between eastern Australia and New Caledonia whales. Some eastern Australian humpback whales migrate through the southern waters of New Zealand on route to Antarctic feeding areas. Photoidentification studies have shown that the waters near the Balleny Islands, in Antarctic Area V, are a feeding area for some eastern Australian humpback whales. However, such studies provide no details of the routes taken between New Zealand and Australia and to and from Antarctic feeding areas. Sixteen humpback whales were satellite-linked radio tagged off Eden NSW in 2008. The number and duration of the tag positions reported revealed complete migratory transits from Eden to Antarctic Area V and IV feeding areas. Photographs of the Eden humpback whales were compared to the Hervey Bay photo-identification catalogue and yielded two matches, identified from lateral body marks and dorsal fins. This study provides the first evidence that during the southern migration some humpback whales stopover at Hervey Bay and also migrate past Eden on the NSW coast. The tracks of the two whales from Eden showed that a male sighted in Hervey Bay in the same season moved southeast from Eden towards southern New Zealand. A female with site-fidelity to Hervey Bay in previous seasons, accompanied by a calf when the tag was deployed, moved down and around the coast of Victoria, across Bass Strait and then southwest into the Antarctic Area IV feeding area. Eden may be a migratory hub for humpback whales departing from and approaching the east coast of Australia. This study suggests that eastern Australian humpback whales may exhibit a more diverse range of feeding destinations, after leaving Australian coastal waters, than previously reported.

Humpback whale

10.47536/jcrm.v17i1.429

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First abundance estimate of east coast Australian humpback whales (Megaptera novaeangliae) utilising mark-recapture analysis and multi-point sampling

David A. Paton Lyndon Brooks Daniel Burns Trish Franklin Wally Franklin

Humpback whale

Mark and recapture

Distance sampling

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First assessment of interchange of humpback whales between Oceania and the East coast of Australia

IWC Journal of Cetacean Research and Management (2020)

Claire Garrigue Trish Franklin Rochelle Constantine Kirsty Russell Daniel Burns

The interchange of individual humpback whales between the wintering grounds of Oceania (South Pacific) and the east coast of Australia weredocumented by individual identification photographs collected from 1999 to 2004. Interchange was assessed using regional catalogues of flukephotographs, totalling 672 individuals from Oceania (represented by New Zealand, New Caledonia, Vanuatu, Fiji, Samoa, Tonga, Niue, Cook Island,French Polynesia and American Samoa) and 1,242 individuals from Hervey Bay and Byron Bay representing the southbound and the northboundmigration along the east coast of Australia (EA). Overall, there were seven documented movements between EA and Oceania. Four instances ofmovement of four individuals were documented between EA and the closest breeding grounds of New Caledonia. A further three movements wererecorded between EA and a small catalogue (n = 13) from the New Zealand migratory corridor. In contrast, during this same period, 20 cases ofinterchange were documented among nine breeding grounds: French Polynesia, Cook Islands, Niue, American Samoa, Samoa, Tonga, Fiji, Vanuatuand New Caledonia. The low level of interchange between Oceania and the east coast of Australia has important implications for understanding thestock structure and abundance of humpback whales in the South Pacific.

American samoa

East coast

Samoan

10.47536/jcrm.vi.314

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Citations (34)

Antarctic waters (Area V) near the Balleny Islands are a summer feeding area for some eastern Australian Breeding Stock E(i) Humpback Whales (Megaptera novaeangliae)

IWC Journal of Cetacean Research and Management (2023)

Wally Franklin Trish Franklin Lyndon Brooks Nadine Gibbs Simon Childerhouse

Discovery mark tagging provided the first evidence of linkages between eastern Australian and Oceania Humpback whale breeding grounds and the Antarctic Area V feeding areas. Early investigation of movements of humpback whales in the Western Pacific led to the view that the Balleny Islands and the Ross Sea were the summer destinations for humpback whales from eastern Australia and the Oceania breeding grounds. Recent photo-identification (ID) studies provided further evidence of low levels of migratory interchange and complex linkages within Oceania and between eastern Australia and Oceania. We report here the migratory movement of three humpback whales (Megaptera novaeangliae) between Eastern Australia (E(i) breeding stock) and the Area V Antarctic feeding area in the vicinity of the Balleny Islands. Using photo-ID techniques, comparisons between a Balleny Island fluke catalogue (n = 11 individuals) and existing fluke catalogues from eastern Australia (n = 3,120 individuals) and Oceania (n = 725 individuals), yielded three matches to Hervey Bay, Byron Bay and Ballina in eastern Australia and no matches to Oceania. The eastern Australia catalogue (n = 3,120) was made up of Hervey Bay (n = 1,556), Byron Bay, (n = 916) and Ballina (n = 648). The Oceania catalogue (n = 725) is made up of Tonga (n = 282); New Caledonia (n = 160); French Polynesia (n = 159); New Zealand (n = 41); Cook Islands (n = 36); American Samoa (n = 31); Vanuatu, Niue, Samoa and Fiji (n = 11) and Norfolk Island (n = 5). Only three previous individual photo-ID matches have been reported between eastern Australia Breeding Stock E(i) and Antarctic Area V feeding areas in the vicinity of the Balleny Islands and the Ross Sea. Only one genotype match has been reported between Antarctic Area V feeding areas and Oceania breeding grounds. An analysis of the frequencies of whales seen and not seen in the Balleny Islands, Oceania and eastern Australia, relative to the expected frequencies, based on the estimated population sizes and the sizes of the catalogues, supports the hypothesis that Antarctic Area V waters, in the vicinity of the Balleny islands, is a summer feeding area for some eastern Australian humpback whales.

Humpback whale

10.47536/jcrm.v12i3.562

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Photo-identification comparison of humpback whale (Megaptera novaeangliae) flukes from Antarctic Area IV with fluke catalogues from East Africa, Western Australia and Eastern Australia

IWC Journal of Cetacean Research and Management (2023)

Wally Franklin Trish Franklin Sal Cerchio Howard C. Rosenbaum Curt Jenner

Early ‘Discovery mark’ data together with recent photo-identification, acoustic, genetic and satellite-radio tag data revealed linkages between humpback whales migrating from breeding grounds (C) off East Africa and the Area III feeding area, from Western Australian breeding grounds (D) and the Antarctic Area IV feeding area and the East Australian breeding grounds (E1) and Antarctic Area V feeding area. These data also revealed low levels of intermingling between (E1) and (D) humpback whales in the Antarctic Area IV feeding area consistent with these being separate populations. Greenpeace photographed the ventral tail flukes of 30 individual humpback whales in the Antarctic Area IV feeding area (70°E–130°E) from 2 to 9 January 2008, between 62°47’S and 64°14’S latitude and 80°00’E and 112°57’E longitude. Comparisons of the Antarctic Area IV Greenpeace fluke catalogue (n = 30) with existing reconciled fluke catalogues from East Africa (n = 842), Western Australia (n = 1,558) and Eastern Australia (n = 1,964), yielded no photo-identification matches. An analysis of the frequencies of whales seen and not seen in Antarctica, East Africa, Western Australia and Eastern Australia relative to the frequencies expected to have been seen and not seen, based on the estimated population sizes and the sizes of the catalogues, provided evidence that the Antarctic whales photographed are from a different population to the East African and East Australian populations. There was weak evidence supporting the hypothesis that the Antarctic whales are from the Western Australian population but insufficient data were available to determine a clear outcome. A comparison of the Antarctic Area IV Greenpeace catalogue (n = 30) with other existing African, Indian Ocean, Western and Eastern Australian and/or Antarctic catalogues, together with increased sampling across the humpback whale feeding season in Antarctica and along the Western and Eastern Australian coastline during their winter migration, is likely to provide further evidence of the migratory destination of these humpback whales. It will also add to our limited knowledge of the extent of population overlap within the Antarctic Area III, IV and V feeding areas.

Humpback whale

Longitude

Cetacea

10.47536/jcrm.v17i1.425

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Citations (2)

Microsatellite genotype matches of eastern Australian humpback whales to Area V feeding and breeding grounds

Megan Anderson Debbie Steel Wally Franklin Trish Franklin Dave Paton

Humpback whale

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Eastern Australia (E1 breeding grounds) may be a wintering destination for Area V humpback whales (Megaptera novaeangliae) migrating through New Zealand waters

Wally Franklin Trish Franklin Lyndon Brooks Nadine Gibbs Simon Childerhouse

Investigation of the migratory movement of humpback whales past New Zealand in the 1950s and early 1960s suggested that the primary factor influencing the migratory flow past New Zealand was behaviour associated with breeding and feeding. To the north humpback whales gathered in concentrated breeding assemblages, along the Great Barrier Reef, Australia and nearby islands of the Western Pacific, at locations with suitable coastal conditions. To the south humpback whales dispersed widely across the Antarctic Area V feeding areas. Discovery Tag marks provided the first evidence of linkages between Eastern Australia, New Zealand and Oceania and Antarctic Area V feeding areas and also revealed low levels of intermingling of individual humpbacks between isolated tropical breeding grounds in estern Australia, Eastern Australia and Oceania. A simultaneous, near total collapse of the Eastern Australian, Norfolk Island, New Zealand and Oceania stocks occurred in the early 1960’s as a result of commercial whaling, particularly the illegal whaling conducted by the Soviets in the Area V feeding areas. Recent photo- dentification and genetic studies have identified at least 5 discrete breeding sub-populations in Australia and Oceania; Western Australia (D), Eastern Australia (E1), New Caledonia (E2), Tonga (E3) and Cook Island’s and French Polynesia (F). Also evident are low levels of intermingling amongst breeding sub-populations consistent with the degree of genetic differentiation. Photoidentification has confirmed linkages between Antarctic Area V feeding areas and Eastern Australia and one genotype match has been reported between Antarctic Area V feeding areas and Oceania breeding grounds. Recent abundance estimates show steady increases of the Eastern Australian population, some recovery in the New Caledonia and Tonga population with little evidence of recovery at other known Oceania breeding areas and in New Zealand. Studies to date have provided no conclusive evidence of the migratory destination of the New Zealand population traveling from Antarctic Area V feeding areas to tropical breeding grounds. Here we use recent photo-identification data to investigate and discuss the migratory destination of humpback whales traveling through New Zealand waters and suggest the hypothesis that humpbacks with site fidelity to Eastern Australia may migrate past the South Island of New Zealand including through the Cook Strait and Foveaux Strait.

Whaling

Humpback whale

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Initial genotype matching of humpback whales from the 2010 Australia/New Zealand Antarctic Whale Expedition (Area V) to Australia and the South Pacific

Debbie Steel Natalie Schmitt Megan Anderson Daniel Burns Simon Childerhouse

Humpback whale

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Photo-identification of individual Southern Hemisphere humpback whales (Megaptera novaeangliae) using all available natural marks:

IWC Journal of Cetacean Research and Management (2020)

Wally Franklin Trish Franklin Peter Harrison Lyndon Brooks

Misidentification errors in capture-mark recapture studies of humpback whales (Megaptera novaeangliae) related to poor quality of photographs as well as changes in natural marks can seriously affect population dynamics parameter estimates and derived estimates of population size when using sophisticated modelling techniques. In this study we used an innovative photo-identification matching system to investigate and examine the long-term stability and/or changes in natural marks on ventral-tail flukes, dorsal fin shapes and lateral body marks from a sample of 79 individual humpback whales, resighted in 2 to 11 years over timespans ranging from 2 to 21 years. A binary logistic mixed effects model, on a pair-matched sample of the 79 individual whales, found no significant differences in the proportions of ventral-tail fluke marks, dorsal fin shapes and lateral body marks, that displayed changes in primary and/or secondary characteristics over years (F=0.939, df=1/156, p =0.334). The results of this study substantiate the value and reliability of using primary and secondary natural marks on the ventral-tail flukes, in conjunction with dorsal fin shapes and secondary lateral body marks as double-tags. This provides a means of maximising observations of individual humpback whales over years, while minimising and managing misidentification errors in the photo-identification matching process, thus significantly improving modelling outcomes.

Humpback whale

Dorsal fin

10.47536/jcrm.v21i1.186

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Citations (9)

The social and ecological significance of Hervey Bay Queensland for eastern Australian humpback whales ( Megaptera novaeangliae )

Trish Franklin

Humpback whale

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Citations (6)