The loneliest whale in the world.

Check out this link to the 'Loneliest whale in the world', possibly a cross between a Fin whale and a Blue whale, and first recorded by the navy in 1992.  Whales use sound to communicate across vast distances, so imagine speaking a language that no-one else understands.

New WA Kimberley marine park

The biggest humpback whale calving area in the southern hemisphere will be protected within a new marine park to be created on the Kimberley coast by the West Australian government.

The creation of Camden Sound Marine Park, about 300km northeast of Broome, was announced by Premier Colin Barnett and Environment Minister Bill Marmion on Thursday.

"Creating this marine park reaffirms our election commitment to protect this significant and biologically important region," the premier said.The park will cover nearly 7000 sq km and will be created by mid-2012.

Camden Sound is internationally recognised as the biggest calving area for humpback whales in the southern hemisphere with more than 1000 humpbacks found there during the calving season.

Mr Marmion said a special purpose zone would be created covering about 1670 sq km to protect the calving grounds, with vessels required to remain at least 500m from humpback mothers and calves.

There will also be two sanctuary zones comprising about 20 per cent of the marine park area around the Champagny Islands and Montgomery Reef.

Mr Marmion said the marine park's zoning scheme would help protect a unique marine environment, while allowing recreational and commercial fishing as well as aquaculture and pearling.

He said for the first time in WA there would be a zone providing for a 'wilderness' fishing experience where recreational fishers must either catch and release or eat their catch before leaving the zone.

Pearling operations will be recognised in a designated zone, and some commercial fishing operations will be phased out, with 48 per cent of the marine park closed to commercial trawl fishing and 23 per cent closed to all forms of commercial fishing.

Mr Marmion said compensation would be paid to affected fishing operations if appropriate.

The new park will contain coral reefs and seagrass areas, mangrove forests, tidal flats, and habitats for dugong, sawfish, dolphins and crocodiles.

It will be jointly managed by the Department of Environment and Conservation and traditional owners, including the Dambimangari and Uunguu peoples.

The government has committed $10 million over four years to protecting and managing the park, with ongoing funding of $2.3 million a year from 2015-16.

The Pew Environment Group, which advised on the park's boundaries, said it took the region a step closer to becoming an international tourism and conservation attraction alongside the Great Barrier Reef.

Spokesman John Carey said an estimated 22,000 mothers and baby whales would have a safe and secure home during WA's winter months.

"The reefs and marine life of the Kimberley are as significant as what's found on the Great Barrier Reef. However, to date less than one per cent of the region has had any protection," he said.

Conservation groups welcomed the release of the final boundaries for the park.

WWF WA Director Paul Gamblin said the park was an important and historic step forward for the Kimberley.

"This represents government getting it right for the Kimberley, this is what the future of the Kimberley should be," he said.

Mr Gamblin said oil and gas developers would now be expected to show no interest in the Camden Sound area.

Wilderness Society marine campaigner Jenita Enevoldsen said the region was one of Australia's last remaining large and healthy refuges for many threatened species, including humpback whales, snubfin dolphins, dugongs, saw sharks, and six turtle species.

She said the creation of the park was recognition that the region's future lay in protecting its unique natural and cultural values through a conservation economy, not in pursuing destructive industrial projects such as Woodside Petroleum's proposed gas precinct 60km north of Broome.

Conservation Council of WA marine coordinator Tim Nicol said the park showed leadership and vision from the premier at a time when the future of the Kimberley was at a crossroads.

Kimberley Whale Watching on Camden Sound Marine Park

Kimberley Whale Watching on Camden Sound Marine Park

Kimberley Whale Watching congratulates the Western Australian State Government on the creation of the Camden Sound Marine Park on the Kimberley coast covering an area of nearly 7,000km2.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

 

Breach at Lulim Island

PRLog (Press Release) - Apr 19, 2012 - Kimberley Whale Watching congratulates the Western Australian State Government in announcing the new Camden Sound Marine Park.  The park, which was announced by former Environment Minister Donna Faragher in October 2009 covers a large area considered one of the main calving grounds for Breeding Stock D,  the world's largest population of Humpback whales, and Montgomery Reef, which at 350km2 is considered to beone of Australia's largest inshore reefs. The State Government will be working closely with traditional owners and sea rangers in the joint management of the park.

The Kimberley's Humpback whales use the islands and reefs of the marine park as areas to shelter whilst feeding and nurturing young calves.  Through our observations of Humpback whale distribution and behaviour along the Kimberley coast and outer reefs and shoals over the past six years, we have also noted the importance of the Dampier Peninsula as a whale calving, resting and feeding area, and urge the State Government to consider increased protection for the Humpback whale population along this part of the coast.  We hope that the state government will extend the areas under marine protection to include the Buccaneer Archipelago, Talbot Bay, Dugong Bay and the Horizontal Waterfalls.

Photo:
http://www.prlog.org/11853279/1

www.kimberleywhales.com.au

Whales Turn up in Kimberley waters

    PRESS RELEASE

The first humpback whales for 2010 have been spotted in Kimberley Waters.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

PR Log (Press Release) – May 28, 2010 – Humpback whales have turned up in Kimberley waters a week earlier than last year.  Gregg Davey from Kimberley Kayak Fishing Tours (http://kimberleykayakfishing.com.au/) spotted the first pod of 3 juvenile whales near Talboys Rock, off Manari on the Kimberley coast on Monday the 24th of May 2010.  This year's sighting is a week earlier than the first reported whale sighting for 2009, which occurred on the 31st of May.  

Juveniles form the advance guard for the migrating whale population, which is estimated at approximately 22,000 individuals. The Breeding Group D population of Humpback whales (Megaptera novaeangliae) migrate from the frigid waters of the Antarctic to the warm tropical waters of the Kimberley coast to give birth.  The calving grounds extend from just south of Broome to north of Camden Sound, which will soon become the Kimberley's first inshore marine park.

The whale sightings herald the beginning of the Kimberley's whale watching season.  Broome will also host the second Kimberley Whale Festival, which will be held in Broome from the 15th to the 18th of July 2010.  As part of the festival, "Kimberley Whale Watching", a Broome based research group, is offering a framed whale photo for the first photo taken of a humpback whale in Kimberley waters in 2010.

Send your photo with time, date and location to kimberleywhales@bigpond.com.

Kimberley Whale Watching -  http://www.kimberleywhales.com.au
Kimberley Whale Festival - http://www.kimberleywhalefestival.blogspot.com
Whale Images - http://www.kimberleystockphotos.com.au
Whale Images - http://www.kimberleymedia.com.au

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Kimberley Whale Watching conducts research and charters between Broome and Camden Sound on Western Australia's Kimberley coast.

Whale sighting in January

A Broome local has reported a sighting of two whales in the Kimberley's Koolan Island channel (Yampi Sound) today.  As the majority of the whales head south for the Australian summer, this sighting indicates that the whales have either stayed in the Kimberley or returned from elsewhere.  We are awaiting further confirmation.

Camden Sound to be Declared a Marine Park

In October last year, the Western Australian Minister for the Environment, Donna Faragher, declared that Camden Sound, on the mid north Kimberley coast and the maternity ward and nursery for the Group lV population of Humpback Whales, is to be declared a Marine Park in 2010.  The boundaries are yet to be detemined.

Kimberley Whale Festival 2010

The Kimberley Whale Festival 2010 promises to be even bigger and better. Following the success of the inaugural festival, we're holding the 2010 festival over the weekend of the 17th and 18th of July.
This year's exciting events include whale watching cruises and survey flights, a Short Film Festival,  human whale on Cable Beach, Childrens' art competition and Adults' art exhbition, Fish Cake Cookoff and Sunday session music at Matso's Broome Brewery.

Check out the whale festival website.