In August 2020, local Albany pilot David Ellett took his family for a scenic flight along the coastline, hoping they would see some Southern Right Whales/Mammangs. They headed for the Pallinup they had spotted some a few weeks earlier. They were rewarded as they sighted many mother and calf pairs dotted along the coastline. And then David’s daughter Courteney spotted a Little White Whale, and she quickly took some footage with her smartphone.

Meanwhile, UWA, School of Biological Sciences’ Masters students Katy Fannei and Max Fabry were trawling the Albany and surrounding coastlines, also looking for the endangered Southern Right Whales so that they could undertake vital observations for their studies. Despite long days on whale-watching boats and by road along the coast, the two researchers had not seen any Southern Right Whales for a month, following a major storm in the region. 

The following day David’s wife Lisa-Maree shared the photo of the white calf on a local Whale Watching Facebook page and the ripple effect began! Katy and Max spotted it and made contact, excited to learn more about the sightings. Lisa-Maree invited them to dinner and soon the four quickly became friends sharing a common love of the Southern Right Whale. 

David and Lisa-Maree pointed the researchers to the coastline where they knew they would see some Southern Right Whales and connected them with some friends who helped them reach the remote location.

 This meeting inspired David and Lisa-Maree to find a way to get the researchers up in the sky to observe and study the whales. So they hatched a scheme to try to find support amongst the local private pilot community to provide regular ariel surveys in 2021, and so the Little White Whale Project began!

The ripple effect was amazing and the 2021 Whale season saw support provided by 14 local pilots from the Albany Aero Club and the Albany Flying Club. Collectively the pilots donated and provided weekly flights totalling over 13,000 kilometres, taking some 77hrs in the air with a value of over $30,000. Every week Katy and the pilots weaved the 450kms of coastline following the same route from the Albany wind turbines in the West to just beyond Point Anne in the East. This was then complemented by hours of land-based observations along the coast by Katy assisted by volunteers.

As Katy only had a regular vehicle, we provided our 4WD and fuel for any off-road observations.

Other supporters provided, accommodation and we even had some cash provided by one of the pilots towards her living costs! We were blown away by the generosity of the community we had grown.

While we all were busy here, Max was in SA undertaking work on a research project that has been long established into Southern Right Whales at the head of the bight. Learning valuable skills in drone observations that he would bring back to our region in 2022. It was an exciting time as we knew we were on to something exciting with each week Katy’s numbers and enthusiasm were increasing!

In 2021 we also reached out to establish communication, build our knowledge and networks with other organisations, researchers and community scientists working in the space of whale research, and we are very grateful to those organisations and individuals that have been so supportive and responsive.

And by the end of 2021, we realised we needed to establish an organisation to keep the project going as other avenues were not going to be possible to meet our goal of continuing aerial observations and more in 2022.

In 2022, we moved from a small community project to a Not For Profit Organisation. It was named after the Little White Whale that started our journey. We have successfully worked hard to recruit other four committed volunteers to establish the LWWP, Executive Committee and register our organisation. In March we had a fabulous community launch hosted at the Albany Aboriginal Corporation. (You can a video of the presentations on our Facebook page)

We now have a goal, to facilitate world-class research of the Southern Right Whale population that visits the south coast of Western Australia through activating our community. We see the possibilities for the LWWP to help establish the region to become a hub for Southern Right Whale Research around the world. We also want to provide a connection between organisations and individuals who are undertaking research on the Southern Right Whale so we together can share information, and maximise the limited resources available for research.

The 2022 season will see our coordinating volunteers for the aerial observations and ground-based observations, to assist the researchers. We will also be busy planning and seeking funding and support for all the things we need to expand the project to include more detailed land-based observations using drones ( pending approvals).

We are doing this through fund-raising activities, donations, sponsorship, and grant applications, as we also work towards obtaining tax-deductible status.

Education is a long term focus as we want to engage with all of the community, but especially the younger generation. We will be looking to deliver education through storytelling, by linking stories from our indigenous elders, with the history of whaling, to the present and the latest information available from our researchers.

We see this as an opportunity to create a new story for our region about this special whale that has returned to our shores to breed and give birth again. This is an amazing story of recovery after the species and population were desecrated to 300 worldwide.

We know from our Menang Noongar Elders, that whales were abundant here and that is evident from the traditional name for King George Sound, being Mammang Koort, which means the heart of the whale. We now better understand the impact of whaling, which is part of our own history as Albany was the last place commercial whaling was undertaken in Australia only finally closing in 1978.

So our story is now to engage you the reader to help our project and rejuvenate our history as we support research and recovery so we can one day again be able to live up to the name of Mammang Koort.

Following the launch of the Little White Whale Project WA Inc, Campbell Transport a privately owned and run major transport company with roots in the Southern Coast, cam forward and offered to supply a Toyota Prado 4WD, complete with marketing logos, servicing and fuel to us.

This generosity ensured our Field Research Team led by Max Fabry could undertake thier land based observations of the Southern Right Whales along the coastline of the Survey area.

The donation of the vehicle has ensured that our research team can successful track along the ruggered coast to spot and film Whales in the locations identified in the weekly aerial flights.

The drones will collect imagery for Photo Identification of the SRW as well as vital migration and behaviour observation data.

We are excited to announce that we have been approved as a Registered Charity with the ACNC ( Australian Charities and Not-for-Profit Commission) and by the WA State Government to have a Charitable Collections Licence.

This means we can now accept donations!

The 2023 Season is on hard on our heels and we will be reaching out to you, our Community, to support us. We need funds to ensure our Researchers have access to the required training, licences and equipment to continue with their landbased observations of the Endangered Southern Right Whale, including Photo Identification.