Individual Whales Identified In Byron Bay
Every humpback whale has a unique pigment pattern on the underside of its tail fluke. Photographs of flukes enable researchers to identify individual whales, so repeated sightings of individuals can reveal information about their life histories, migration patterns and population size.
In an ongoing collaborative project between Whale Watching Byron Bay and Southern Cross University Whale Research Centre, a catalogue of fluke photos is being compiled of humpback whales that pass through Byron Bay.
Already, two whales that were photographed last year have been identified as having visited Byron Bay in previous years.
BB08017 went south through Byron Bay in October 2008 and is known to have visited Byron previously in 2005.
BB08022 2004
BB08022 2008