RESEARCH PROGRAMS

Presently, there are five ongoing research programs. One of which is a Photo Identification survey commenced in 1992 to provide data for the study of the behavior, social dynamics and ecology of the Australian Humpback Whales.

Trish Franklin's observations and photo-id data
have already made a significant contribution to documenting the recovery of the Australian Humpbacks following their near extinction due to commerical whaling in Antarctica.

Trish has taken and analysed over 40,000 Photo Identification data images. Her Fluke Catalogue consists of over 3,000 individuals, the largest
digital data archive on Humpbacks in the Southern Hemisphere.

This research has enabled Trish to document the life histories of nearly 600 individual Humpback Whales, many of whom we have come to know extremely well as they migrate annually up the east coast of Australia.

Information obtained from these research programs adds to the body of knowledge about Humpback Whales and also directly contributes to the Australian Cetacean Management and Monitoring Program.

The population of this group of whales, the Antarctic Area V whales, was estimated to be between 45,000 and 60,000 before whaling commenced. When whaling ceased in Australia due to the lack of whales, there were an estimated 150 individuals remaining.

Trish published a collaborative paper on the Antarctic Area V population in 2005. Using
Photo-Identification 'mark re-capture' techniques,
the recovering population was estimated to be approximately 7,000. The population could now be more than 10,000.

WHALE SONGLINES

Humpback Whales travel in an unending cycle of migration between their birthplace in the inter-reef Lagoon of the Great Barrier Reef and Antarctica along the eastern coastline of Australia.

Their world is comprised of vast stretches of ocean where sounds emitted by the Humpback Whales can be heard over great distances.

Dr. Roger and Katy Payne were the first scientists to recognize that the unique sounds made by Humpback Whales were in fact conscious, complex evolving songs. They found that the songs varied markedly from year to year and that "new variations are a learned trait which evolves".

The Humpback 'Songlines' repeat in cycles from anywhere between nine and twenty seven minutes. Individual Whales have been documented as singing continuously for up to twenty three hours.

Typically, the Songline begins in the high frequencies and descends to the lower frequencies as the cycles progress. The Humpback Songlines are transferred from year to year and evolve in a similar fashion to the verbally transmitted tribal lore of Aboriginal cultures from where the term Songlines is derived.

Trish Franklin - Photographer/Videographer
Wally Franklin - Videographer/Sound Recordist
Steve Franklin - Graphic Designer/Production Artist
Mark Franklin - Audio Engineer/Post Production

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