Over the past couple of weeks (end of March/early April 2025), the first Humpback Whales were sighted on our boat tours. While the peak movement of Humpback Whales past Tasmania usually occurs from late May through July, early-season sightings have become increasingly common in recent years.
Typically, it’s just a handful of individuals, moving northward, well ahead of the main migratory flow. Most are seen briefly, surfacing and diving with purpose as they cover ground on their long journey from the Southern Ocean to the breeding grounds off Queensland.
In previous years, we’ve observed some of the whales lingering off the Tasman Peninsula and feeding opportunistically. Though Tasmania isn’t considered a core feeding ground, more and more evidence appears of Humpback Whales feeding in this area, sometimes in large numbers of so called ‘super-groups’.
Is the migration timing changing?
We’ve noted a trend of early arrivals in March and April over the last few years. While it’s common for the whale migration to start with a few individuals before the majority follow, the consistency of these early appearances is of interest to researchers monitoring whale behaviour in the region.
Shifts in migration timing have been reported in various regions, where earlier departures and arrivals have been linked to changing ocean conditions, temperature anomalies, and variability in prey distribution.
It’s unclear whether the early sightings off Tasmania reflect broader ecological change or simply normal individual variation. This is where continued observation from ‘citizen scientists’ comes in and can be very valuable. Recording these patterns over time helps build a clearer picture of migration dynamics and contributes to national data sets used by groups such as the Australian Marine Mammal Centre (AMMC) and ORRCA, as well as international databases like Happy Whale (which now includes an extensive list of ‘Tasmanian’ whales in the Tasmanian whale database.
How are whales tracked by researchers and members of the public?
The way a whale is tracked and identified highly depends on the species of whale, as they all have unique methods of identification. Researchers track Humpback Whales through:
- Visual sightings and behavioural observations
- Acoustic recordings of whale song
- Photo-ID of unique tail flukes and dorsal fins
- Satellite tagging of select individuals
Community reporting also plays a key role. Members of the public, tour operators, fishers, and coastal residents can provide images of the underside of the whale’s tail which shows unique patterns and markings, similar to our fingerprints.
If you’ve seen a whale on our boat tour or anywhere else in Australia, you can contribute your images to the Happy Whale database.
Why does this matter? From exploitation to protection
Humpback Whales have a long and complicated history in Tasmanian waters. Commercial whaling stations operated around the island well into the 20th century, with the final shore-based station closing in 1978. Yup, not that long ago! Since then, Australia’s legal protections – including the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Act 1999 (EPBC Act) – have allowed populations to recover significantly.
The east Australian humpback population is now estimated at over 40,000 individuals, one of the great conservation success stories of the modern era. But that doesn’t mean the work is done. Today’s threats include entanglement in fishing gear, ship strikes, noise pollution, and the unknowns of a changing climate – not to mention the harvesting of antarctic krill… hundreds of thousands of tonnes every summer.
Understanding even subtle changes in migration can help scientists anticipate future challenges and shape policy that protects whales and the broader marine environment they depend on.
If you’d like to learn more about the whales that migrate past Tasmania’s shores and chance an encounter with the whales on their way up the coast, you can check our online booking system for available time slots. We look forward to having you onboard!
