Latest / 360 with Katie Woolf / Katie Woolf spoke with NT Government Senior Scientist Marine Mammals Dr Carole Palmer

Transcript

Katie Woolf spoke with NT Government Senior Scientist Marine Mammals Dr Carole Palmer · 360 with Katie Woolf

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: You may remember a little while back there was a
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: situation where we had some humpback whales arrive in the
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: Northern Territory. Unfortunately, as I understand that one of those
• 0:10
  Speaker 1: whales is still stuck.
• 0:11
  Speaker 2: In the territory at the moment.
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: And joining me on the line to tell us a
• 0:15
  Speaker 1: little bit more about the situation's Northern Territory Government Senior
• 0:18
  Speaker 1: Scientist of Marine Mammals, Doctor Carol Palmer, Good morning to you, Carol.
• 0:24
  Speaker 2: Hi there, how are you going?
• 0:25
  Speaker 1: Not too bad? Can you talk us through the situation
• 0:28
  Speaker 1: at the moment with the whale.
• 0:31
  Speaker 2: Yeah, Look, it's a little bit sad so last week,
• 0:36
  Speaker 2: well so for everyone that remembers. They were first recorded
• 0:39
  Speaker 2: in early September, two or three were recorded way up
• 0:43
  Speaker 2: the East Alligator River, which had never been recorded before.
• 0:47
  Speaker 2: And then about the twentieth of one left or two left,
• 0:51
  Speaker 2: and then on the twentieth of September, the last one,
• 0:55
  Speaker 2: who we're calling Humpy, left Yeah. And then on the
• 0:59
  Speaker 2: twelfth of October, a rex Fisher just off the East
• 1:02
  Speaker 2: Alligator recorded Humpy just off point Farewell. And ever since then,
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  Speaker 2: working with my colleagues at Kakadu, Fiach and Jackie we've
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  Speaker 2: recorded Humpy just doing kind of a small circle around
• 1:18
  Speaker 2: Point Farewell. And last week we spent three days doing
• 1:23
  Speaker 2: some dolphin boat stuff, but each day we went to
• 1:28
  Speaker 2: just check on Humpy and we got some images and yeah,
• 1:33
  Speaker 2: look he looks like he's losing weight and it just
• 1:37
  Speaker 2: doesn't seem right. And like all we know up there
• 1:40
  Speaker 2: it is so hot right now, and all our whales
• 1:45
  Speaker 2: would be down on their way to Tazzy or in
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  Speaker 2: Antarctica right now, sofish to be there. It's yeah, it's
• 1:53
  Speaker 2: where and none of us really have any answers. That's
• 1:57
  Speaker 2: you know, getting in contact with our real whale experts.
• 2:00
  Speaker 2: Oh goodness me. I know, it's a really unusual situation
• 2:04
  Speaker 2: and it is really sad because he having now spent
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  Speaker 2: quite a bit of time on a boat just quietly
• 2:09
  Speaker 2: looking at him, trying to record behavioral stuff. He's a
• 2:12
  Speaker 2: lovely animal, beautiful temperament, there's no aggression, and he's inquisitive too,
• 2:19
  Speaker 2: so you know, he definitely comes and you know, is
• 2:23
  Speaker 2: inquisitive about you know, us on a boat with the
• 2:26
  Speaker 2: engine off and all that sort of stuff. It is
• 2:29
  Speaker 2: pretty sad.
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  Speaker 1: Carol, What is the prospects for Humpy? It doesn't sound good. No.
• 2:36
  Speaker 2: Look, and you know, speaking to my colleagues down in
• 2:39
  Speaker 2: the Antarctic Division and the Tazzy government and those guys,
• 2:42
  Speaker 2: you know, they deal with wales way more than we do,
• 2:45
  Speaker 2: and we deal with dolphins way more than they do. Yeah,
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  Speaker 2: so it's a bit of a flip situation. There is
• 2:51
  Speaker 2: a chance that he could, you know, decide to leave,
• 2:56
  Speaker 2: but it's unusual that he's still there, you know, a
• 3:01
  Speaker 2: couple of months now into this hot, hot weather, hot water.
• 3:06
  Speaker 2: We're not sure if he's foraging because normally these guys
• 3:10
  Speaker 2: don't really eat this when they come up you know,
• 3:13
  Speaker 2: July to October, and then when they get back to Antarctica,
• 3:17
  Speaker 2: that's when they're foraging on the krill. So we're not
• 3:21
  Speaker 2: sure that he's been able to eat. But I did
• 3:24
  Speaker 2: think on Tuesday when we were just doing the behavioral observations,
• 3:28
  Speaker 2: I thought I could I almost his behavior made me
• 3:32
  Speaker 2: think that, I know, maybe he is foraging. And then
• 3:35
  Speaker 2: some little humpback dolphins came and they were sort of
• 3:37
  Speaker 2: foraging around him too, So maybe. But I think this
• 3:43
  Speaker 2: is what makes it so tough. We can't see because
• 3:45
  Speaker 2: the water is so turbid and muddy. We can't see
• 3:48
  Speaker 2: anything under the water, so we only see him when
• 3:51
  Speaker 2: he comes up to breathe, and we can't really tell
• 3:56
  Speaker 2: what's going on that I could say. We've got some
• 3:59
  Speaker 2: images and they're does look like there's he's got a
• 4:02
  Speaker 2: couple of old injuries, but old injuries they're not they're
• 4:06
  Speaker 2: not new. So I think he's quite an old whale. Yeah,
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  Speaker 2: and I'm not sure if it's a boy or a girl,
• 4:13
  Speaker 2: a male or a female leader none of us. Oh yeah, no,
• 4:16
  Speaker 2: it's pretty, but he's a very lovely animal.
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  Speaker 1: And Carol, obviously, if there was any way of getting
• 4:23
  Speaker 1: Humpy out and onto the right path out of the territory,
• 4:28
  Speaker 1: you know, we'd already be attempting to do that at
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  Speaker 1: this point.
• 4:32
  Speaker 2: Yes, look, that's right. And it's just I mean, you know,
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  Speaker 2: like all your listeners know, you know, these guys, they're
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  Speaker 2: like fifteen sixteen meters long, they weigh you know, forty
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  Speaker 2: thousand kilos. They're big animals, and we have to be
• 4:45
  Speaker 2: really careful about how we go about it, and they're
• 4:48
  Speaker 2: really smart, so he could leave, I think, but we're
• 4:56
  Speaker 2: just yeah, sorry, I keep saying this over and over,
• 4:59
  Speaker 2: but just don't know what it is, whether there's a
• 5:03
  Speaker 2: mental health issue, whether he does have some internal injury,
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  Speaker 2: or he's just actually very old and this is his
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  Speaker 2: final time. Yeah, you know, it's amazing he's here in
• 5:17
  Speaker 2: at the mouth of the East and in Van Diemen's
• 5:19
  Speaker 2: golf and yeah, and he is a lovely animal and
• 5:24
  Speaker 2: lovely to see him, that's for sure.
• 5:27
  Speaker 1: Well, Carol, I really appreciate you giving us an update
• 5:29
  Speaker 1: this morning. And it doesn't sound like it's a really
• 5:34
  Speaker 1: sort of optimistic you know, it doesn't sound overly optimistic
• 5:40
  Speaker 1: at this point. But we will keep in contact with
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  Speaker 1: you and gee, the poor thing.
• 5:46
  Speaker 2: Yeah, no, look, thank you, and we'll keep yeah, we'll
• 5:48
  Speaker 2: keep an eye on him or her and yeah, hopefully
• 5:51
  Speaker 2: he does make the call, but it is getting really
• 5:54
  Speaker 2: late for those guys to be heading down to the
• 5:57
  Speaker 2: cooler cooler waters and things like that. But yeah, yes, look,
• 6:01
  Speaker 2: were always saying fingers crossed, that's for sure.
• 6:03
  Speaker 1: Absolutely well, Carol, I really appreciate you having a chat
• 6:07
  Speaker 1: with us this morning. Thank you so much for your time.
• 6:10
  Speaker 2: No, thank you so much.
• 6:11
  Speaker 1: Thank you. That was the Northern Territory Government senior scientist
• 6:15
  Speaker 1: there of Marine Mammals, doctor Carol Palmer, and I tell
• 6:19
  Speaker 1: you what it is. That's a it's a terrible situation
• 6:22
  Speaker 1: now that Humpy finds himself in and and yeah, we'll
• 6:26
  Speaker 1: keep a very close eye on that, and we will
• 6:28
  Speaker 1: give you updates as they come to hand.