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Assessment of humpback whale swimming speeds in two East Australian bays

Hilla Kela , Jasper de Bie , Karlien Paas , Stephanie Stack, Wally Franklin, Trish Franklin, Jan-Olaf Meynecke

Abstract

Context: Humpback whales (Megaptera novaeangliae) are capital breeders, travelling several thousand kilometres between their breeding and feeding sites annually. Along the migration route, humpback whales utilise locations such as Hervey Bay and the Gold Coast bay for resting. Methods: Here we used sightings data from 2066 boat-based surveys spanning eleven years Aims: to compare and analyse the sighting data and evaluate the swimming speed in Hervey Bay and the Gold Coast bay. Key results: During southern migration, swimming speeds observed in Hervey Bay and the Gold Coast bay for both pods with and without calves were slower than migration speeds reported in literature for each pod type. Whales swam faster in the Gold Coast bay (mean = 4.14 kmh-1) than Hervey Bay (mean = 3.32 kmh-1), however the effect of location on swimming speed was relatively small. In Hervey Bay, swimming speeds of pods without calves were faster (mean = 3.48 kmh-1) than swimming speeds of pods with calves (mean = 3.15 kmh-1). Conclusions and implications: Our findings improve the understanding of swimming speeds in different humpback whale cohorts and their movements in nearshore environments with implications for conservation management.

MF24116  Accepted 06 November 2024

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