The Oceania Project

We have five ongoing research programs including a photo-identification survey commenced in 1992 to provide data for the study of the behaviour, social dynamics and ecology of the East Australian Humpback Whales.

Our behavioural data and photo-id fluke catalogue have already made a significant contribution to documenting the recovery of the East Australian Humpbacks following their near extinction due to commercial whaling in Antarctica.

We have taken and analysed over 400,000 photo-id data images and our fluke catalogue consists of over 3,000 individuals, the largest digital data archive on Humpback Whales in the Southern Hemisphere.

Our research has enabled us to document the life histories of over 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.
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In 1988 Doctor Trish Franklin established The Oceania Project as a not-for-profit NGO to support the conservation of Whales, Dolphins and the Ocean environment through research and education programs. The primary focus of The Oceania Project has been the support for a long-term study of the behaviour and ecology of Humpback Whales in Hervey Bay.

Trish's research aboard The Oceania Project's Annual Whale Research Expeditions in Hervey Bay has established a unique long-term photo-identification data set, with extensive individual Humpback Whale re-sighting histories, ranging from two to over twenty years.

Trish's research has focussed on individual and group social behaviour of migrating Humpback Whales and the social organisation and temporal segregation of classes of Humpback Whales during the southern migration in Hervey Bay off the southeast coast of Queensland. Her work is making a direct contribution to the management and conservation of the East Australian Humpback Whales.

Trish's work on the social behaviour of Humpback Whales is summarised in her thesis: The social and ecological significance of Hervey Bay Queensland for eastern Australian humpback whales (Megaptera novaeangliae). www.bit.ly/TrishFranklinResearchPublications