Little White Whale Project documenting southern right whales in world-first weekly aerial survey research

Soaring above the Southern Ocean in a spotter plane with a GPS tracker in one hand and a pen in the other, whale researcher Katy Fannei is overjoyed to see several southern right whales gracefully floating below. Between June and October last year, southern right whale researcher Ms Fannei conducted 21 aerial surveys assessing the abundance and coastal distribution of the endangered species between Albany and Doubtful Island Bay. The study titled Little White Whale Project, is the first-time aerial surveys of southern right whales have been conducted on a weekly basis. “Weekly aerial surveys have not been conducted for southern right whales ever before in the world,” Ms Fannei said. Ms Fannei said past surveys by other scientists either locally or worldwide, had only been done annually or within a small area. “In our region regarding distribution and abundance there has been two studies — the annual census by the WA Museum and a study of a smaller space — done between 2001 and 2003, 12km off the coast of Point Anne,” she said. Ms Fannei and her colleague surveyed one of three major breeding grounds of the species, Doubtful Island Bay, as well as two emerging breeding areas, Hassel Beach and Cheyne Bay to Bremer Bay. Little White Whale Project came about after local Albany pilot David Ellett took his family for a scenic flight along the coastline hoping to spot whales. After capturing a mother whale with a little white calf, David’s wife Lisa-Maree Ellett uploaded the video to Facebook. It wasn’t long until Ms Fannei spotted it and due to her self-proclaimed “weird fascination” with southern right whales got in touch with Ms Ellett excited to learn more about the sighting. An inspired Ellett family wanted to do more to support Ms Fannei’s research so he rounded up 14 pilots from the Albany Aero Club and Albany Flying Club to conduct regular aerial surveys throughout the 2021 whale season. Collectively the pilots donated and provided weekly flights totalling over 13,000km, taking some 77 hours in the air over 21 weeks. Every week Ms Fannei and the pilots weaved the 450km of coastline following the same route from the Albany wind turbines in the west to just beyond Point Anne in the east. This was then complemented by hours of land-based observations along the coast. Originally from Germany, Ms Fannei said she used to be afraid of flying and would suffer from frequent panic attacks. “Back home in Germany I got hypnotised so I could make my way to Australia, that helped to overcome my fear of flying,” she said. “But when I was with the whales, I didn’t feel anything else.” When she first arrived in Australia in 2017, Ms Fannei was also afraid of the ocean. “A friend of mine booked a snorkel and dive tour on the east coast, I already paid for it so I was forced to go,” she said. “That was the first moment that changed my life, from then on it increased my interest (for the ocean).” On her very last day in Australia, Ms Fannei went on a whale watching trip at Rottnest island. “We saw a baby humpback breaching, I was crying because I was so happy, I thought I want to do exactly this right here,” she said. Ms Fannei has come a long way in the past few years and now contributes to the groundbreaking conservation research. She said the project was crucial to finding out more about southern right whales which in the past had almost been hunted to extinction. “The species went down to 200 around the end of the whaling era and they are still in recovery phase,” she said. “They are one of the slowest reproducing species.” It is vital to understand the relationships between whales and their environment to support the recovery of the population, Ms Fannei said. The project complements past and ongoing research conducted in the region, such as the annual census of the WA Museum, marine mammal research from local marine biologist Kirsty Alexander and Edith Cowan University. Ms Fannei and Mr Fabry will continue their research via aerial observation for this year’s whale season at the end of May with the support of the pilots. The Little White Whale Project will officially launch on Thursday at the Albany Noongar Centre at 5:30pm where the community can listen to Ms Fannei and the team talking about their findings.