Geographe Marine Research

Geographe Marine Research Research by real scientists that supports the conservation of marine fauna through high quality research outputs, communication and collaboration.
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Registered Australian Charity. Find out more and donate now at
https://marineresearch.org.au/

04/09/2026

What's that sound? 🐋🔉

It may sound a little different to the melodic tones many people associate with humpback songs but these "whoops" are indeed from a singing humpback whale! Renowned for their hauntingly beautiful songs, humpbacks have an incredible vocal range both in terms od frequency and the diversity of sounds they make.

While we always love to find whale sounds in our recordings, humpbacks are particularly skilled vocalists and are very good at producing sounds that look and sound like the signals of other baleen whale species! This really complicates acoustic analysis and is one of the reasons that you simply cannot replace experienced analysts and manual validation processes!

26/08/2026

Distressing scenes out of Rockingham today with a juvenile humpback stranded on the beach. The animal is currently alive and under the assessment of the DBCA veterinary team.

A reminder to the public to not approach and to stay out of the water. As tempting as it is to get up close to these animals when they are so easily within reach, this animal does not appear to be healthy and it has likely come ashore as a result. Animals in distress do not need additional stress placed on them and can present a hazard to people trying to get close. Parks and Wildlife officers are on site, so please be respectful and follow their directions.

Please also be mindful that shark activity will likely be increased in the area, and the whale may also attract scavenging seabird species such as giant petrels so be on the lookout for sick seabirds over the coming days.

📷

26/08/2026

Ever wondered what a blue whale sounds like? 🔊Turn your sound on to hear the song of the Eastern Indian Ocean blue whale! 🐋

Blue whales produce some of the loudest sounds of any animal, but these sounds are so low in frequency they are inaudible to us humans! This clip of a blue whale singing has been sped up 8x to effectively increase the frequency and bring it up into our hearing range.

Male blue whales sing songs, presumably to woo their female counterparts. These songs are made up of repeated phrases of three, two or one song units. These low frequency, loud songs travel long distances underwater and can be heard at long ranges (10s of km) away from the singer! This 3-part song was recorded in Geographe Bay!

Using underwater recorders to listen for these songs is one of the most effective ways to better understand the spatial and temporal distribution of different blue whale populations and monitor thay change over time as we can collect data constantly year round across multiple years. Blue whale populations are also vocally distinct, meaning listening for their sounds is one of the only non invasive ways we can reliably tell the different sub species and sub populations apart...an important piece of information when trying to monitor population health and recovery!

18/08/2026

Science for conservation! What does that really mean and why do we care so much about it?

Marine mammal research is essential to inform conservation and management strategies by both government agencies - for example through legislated guidelines and legal instruments such as species' Recovery Plans, and by regulators and industry through improved understanding of spatial and temporal occurrence of species, potential for impacts and the efficacy of mitigation tools and approaches.

Too often, claims are made regarding the value of research for protecting a species when there is little understanding of local legislative requirements or how end users such as regulators, species managers and the environmental impact assessment process actually consider and uptake scientific information, or how a specific study will make information available to those processes.

With a research team that boasts extensive regulatory experience, we design all of our research programs around end user needs - targeting our research to answer the critical questions that will improve the regulation and management of offshore activities that impact on marine mammal species as well as feeding our data directly into the species management processes through involvement in jurisdiction specific scientific expert panels. In this way, we are confident that all of the work we do can meaningfully contribute to the protection of marine mammals in our own backyard.

📷 Under Permit (also zoomed and cropped)


11/08/2026

The H5N1 HPAIV is here with increasing reports of deceased and visibly ill seabirds and shorebirds.

We want to take a moment to remind people that this virus is highly contagious and long lived in the environment, and can infect other groups of animals including marine mammals, native terrestrial mammals, cats, dogs and even humans. Please be vigilant and so not touch or approach carcasses or seabirds displaying visible signs of neurological or respiratory illness without appropriate PPE. This means also keeping dogs on lead and a close eye on kids.

Symptoms vary between species. This video, shared by Maureen from Friends of Shore Birds, South Australia, shows a silver gull with visible neurological symptoms. Other species, such as crested terns have been reported as having no visible symptoms prior to passing away from the virus.

If you see a sick or deceased seabird or marine mammal, report it to the Emergency Animal Disease hotline on 1800 675 888.

04/08/2026

Hello there! It has been a busy few weeks over here at Geographe Marine Research and we thought it was time to say a warm welcome to all of our new followers and tell you a bit about who we are and what we do.

GMR is a charitable research organisation with the primary goal of undertaking robust scientific studies that meaningfully contributes to the conservation and management of marine fauna in Western Australia. While most of our work is focused in the south-west corner, our primary focus species are migratory and we have projects and partnerships that span the migratory range of these animals.

But what does it mean to be a charitable research organisation... well it means we are formally registered and recognized by the Australian government as a charity and must meet some pretty stringent requirements. This includes having a suitably experienced and qualified research board overseeing all research to ensure it is robust and reliable. Every member of this board has to be approved by CSIRO as having a suitable level of senior research experience to fulfill this role. We will introduce our board members in more detail in coming weeks. As these are volunteer positions, we feel incredibly lucky to have a board of reputable experts who all have professional careers outside of GMR. Maintaining this status also means we are audited annually be the tax office to ensure research funds are used for exactly what they intended for.

What does this mean for you? It means all donations are tax deductible (get in early so you have those deductibles ready for next tax season!). It also means you can be sure your donations are supporting legitimate research by experienced scientists, with meaningful outputs.

Stay tuned for more information about how we are supporting marine fauna conservation through our research projects.

26/07/2026

Last Sunday morning while checking on dolphin Fraggle we stumbled upon an unfamiliar pod but with one very familiar dolphin. 'Karenina' still bearing the scars from severe sunburn is not a Leschenault estuary dolphin but has visited before.

She arrived here for the first time in 2024 with 4 other Peel-Harvey estuary dolphins. Later that year she became stranded and received some nasty sunburn that makes her easily identifiable. In 2025 she returned home not long after 2 others, but 2 remained in the Leschenault system and are still here. She was also last seen a few days prior swimming alongside Gale the whale in the Harvey estuary.

During the week we were able to get out and take some dorsal photos for identication, and thanks to Estuary Guardians who were able to identify that in fact 7 Peel-Harvey dolphins and possibly one more have made the roughly 80km ocean trip to the Leschenault system.

2 are returnees and 5 that have likely never visited but with the new arrivals the population of the Leschenault estuary is now made up of close to 50% from another estuarine system. There will be lots of questions as to why.

20/07/2026

Sad news coming from the Leschenault Estuary.

Late last week we found dolphin Fraggle mourning the loss of her calf that was born only 2 weeks prior. Knowing that having a calf in winter was going to be a challenge for survival we still had hope she had a chance to be a mum again, she has now lost her last 4 calves.

Witnessing a high respiratory rate in her calf recently sadly we knew this day was coming. Dolphins will carry their deceased calves during a period of mourning which can last for many days, at some stage she must let go and feed to survive, that day is near.

With only a handful of dolphins that call the estuary home we don't get to witness newborns most years and even then the survival rate is low. This day it seems some of her ocean going friends joined the locals to mourn alongside her showing the tight family bond they have.

17/07/2026

Hopefully to be seen again somewhere along our coastline soon and for many years to come, just stay away from the estuaries🐳

15/07/2026

🐋**UPDATE**🐋

With high tide today and a dropping barometer we can confirm the whale is now free and back swimming in the open ocean after a few failed attempts.

It appears the combination of a high tide and a low pressure system has enabled him to navigate the shallows prior to entering the cut, where the dolphins took over and guided the gentle giant out to sea.

Massive thanks to everyone watching over him and passing on sightings and behaviour. The best outcome has been achieved this afternoon🐳

May he grace our coastline for many decades to come.

On the 28th of June an endangered juvenile southern right whale entered the Harvey estuary and has since remained, seemingly trapped, and searching for a way out.

Continuously swimming at pace in a system only a couple of metres deep, it is expending energy stores in an unfamiliar territory. While the local dolphin population have been doing their best at guiding it back home, to date they have sadly been unsuccessful.

Juvenile southern right whales are rare visitors to our coastline and a whale in the estuary is certainly a highly unusual occurence. So how did it come to be in there?

What we know. The tide on the day it entered was massive due to a combination of factors, low pressure system, onshore winds and an astronomically high tide, enabling it to swim over the shallow entrance. In order for it to swim back to the ocean where it belongs these conditions would likely have to be replicated. It picked the exact wrong time for a visit.

Measuring at 10.6m long and a depth of approximately 1.8m, only an extreme high tide will enable it to traverse the 1.3m shallows back to safety on its own accord.

While there is hope he can do this on his own, the fact that he has been there for 18 days now suggests cause for concern.

We all wish for the best outcome here.

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