Standard Presentation 2024 Australian Marine Sciences Association Annual Meeting combined with NZMSS

Is the Contemporary Abundance of Humpback Whales (Megaptera novaeangliae) in Hervey Bay (QLD) Influenced by a Warming Ocean? (#345)

Julia Lennan 1 , Alexis L Levengood 1 , Wally Franklin 1 2 3 , Stephanie Stack 4 5 , Ted Cheeseman 3 6 , Bonnie J Holmes 1
  1. School of Science, Technology & Engineering, University of the Sunshine Coast, Sippy Downs, QLD, Australia
  2. The Oceania Project, PO Box 2023 Hervey Bay, QLD, Australia
  3. Marine Ecology Research Centre, Southern Cross University, Lismore, New South Wales, Australia
  4. Centre for Planetary Health and Food Security, School of Environment and Science, Griffith University, Nathan, Queensland, Australia
  5. Pacific Whale Foundation Australia, Urangan, QLD, Australia
  6. Happywhale, Santa Cruz, CA, USA

Under current climate change projections, marine ecosystems are expected to be subject to significant changes in sea surface temperature, ocean acidification, and shifts in species distributions. Monitoring of inter-annual abundances of migratory species, including humpback whales (Megaptera novaeangliae), is critical to understanding population ecology and how warming waters may be changing their regime. Hervey Bay, Queensland, Australia, is a critical stopover site for M. novaeangliae on the E1 southern migration. While there have been several historical studies on M. novaeangliae inter-annual abundance in Hervey Bay, contemporary studies monitoring the impacts of environmental change on the species’ visitation to Hervey Bay have been limited. Using image recognition AI technology and mark-recapture methods, a photo-identification dataset was analysed to produce abundance estimates for Hervey Bay for 2021 – 2023. Monitoring visitation rates at this whale heritage site is integral to our understanding of marine megafauna as potential indicator species off the Australian east coast.