They are some of the biggest creatures on the planet, but we know very little about them. Pygmy blue whales are migrating down the west coast, providing an opportunity for researchers to use specialised tracking devices to reveal some of the mysteries of the elusive cetaceans.
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00:00The Antarctic feeding grounds beckon whales as they migrate off WA's coast.
00:09Humpback parents guide their newborns on their maiden voyage south, while pods of pygmy blue
00:14whales glide off Dunsborough.
00:18And whale researchers are springing into action.
00:21Are we good to go?
00:22Good to go.
00:23Alright, let's go.
00:24The team is heading out to tag blue whales before they round the cape into deeper water.
00:29Going up.
00:30A drone is deployed to scout, and within seconds, a surfacing whale is spotted.
00:35Coming up.
00:36But as soon as they're more than a few metres below the surface, they just disappear.
00:40It's quite incredible how quickly these animals just vanish.
00:43At up to $10,000 a tag, all eyes remain peeled to seize every opportunity.
00:49We try very, very hard not to miss.
00:51So far we've deployed three this season, we're hoping to get another one on, which would
00:55be really good, so that would be four for the season, which is a really, really good
00:59outcome.
01:00There's no certainty how long the tag will stay in place.
01:02They last anywhere from a couple of weeks up to, if you're lucky, maybe 12 months.
01:06A whale sheds skin really, really fast, so as they shed skin, they shed the tag out.
01:11The tags emit a signal when a whale surfaces, allowing researchers and the public to track
01:16the animals online as they migrate towards their summer feeding grounds around the Bonney
01:22Upwelling off the coast of southeastern Australia.
01:25They're incredibly hard to study.
01:26For something that is so big, they are incredibly stealthy.
01:31We're starting to understand a bit better, but I think there's a lot of things that we
01:34thought we were sure about, that the more information we get, we're starting to understand
01:37that maybe that's not the case.
01:40Slowly revealing their hidden lives of these gentle giants of the ocean.