WHALES & CLIMATE

The Living Ocean Centre for Marine Studies fosters collaboration with the community and a wide range of organisations to connect people to their ocean and advance our understanding of the sea and its creatures.  We see this as a place for you to visit, learn, share and investigate. 
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We have developed a link to schools where students can take part in the exciting field research program, our Humpback Whale Tracking and Behavioural Study program. Contact us to have your school involved.

The Living Ocean Centre for Marine Studies builds upon the expertise of the Whale and Seal Foundation (WSF), which merged into Living Ocean in 2014.  WSF brought into Living Ocean experienced whale researchers and educators, including several of the most experienced whale rescue specialists in Australia. For many years WSF volunteers trained the NSW National Parks Service, Australian National Parks, Water Police and other organisations in the rescue of stranded and entangled whales.
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Through study, awareness and community involvement we aim to nurture our ocean environment and give its creatures a voice.

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WHALE RESEARCH CREW  

Bill Fulton - IT Cetacean behaviour and tracking programmer

Sam Barrip - Cetacean data recorder and observations

Claudia Newman - Marine studies and data logger

Robbi & Carol Newman - LO co founders & operations managers

OBSERVERS, LICENSED DRONE (UAV) OPERATORS, SCIENTISTS & STUDENTS

Mark Farrell - Navigation Sea School International

Jools Farrell - Data recorder Sea Shepherd

Steve Maxwell - UAV & cameras Wildman Films

Assoc. Prof. Ian Goodwin Macquarie University

Cassandra Murray - Science officer FantaSea

Photographers, videographers, media

Steve Maxwell

David Jenkins

Rita Kluge

Jake Parker

Matt Kemp

Guy Finlay

Jack Barrip

STUDENTS & CITIZEN SCIENCE

STUDENT RESEARCH PRACTICALS

Living Ocean takes students on research voyages to experience whale tracking and behaviour and record it photographically for social media and research.
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​“Whether it is diving down beneath the surface to discover a new untouched world or to be sharing a wave with your best mate, or to be watching whales swim past the coastline , to be on or around the ocean it makes you feel alive. To be able to share this experience to others through photos is a gift in itself.”
- Jack Barripp, Barrenjoey High School

RESEARCH PARTNERSHIPS

WHALE AND CLIMATE GROUP PARTNERSHIP

Living Ocean currently partners with six global universities, including Griffith University and the Smithsonian in the Whales and Climate project (whalesandclimate.org), studying the impact of climate change on Southern Hemisphere humpback whales, vital contributors to carbon sequestration in the ocean. Our coastline is one of the few places where these migrations occur close to shore, presenting a rare opportunity for study.

WHALE WATCHING GROUPS

Living Ocean partnered with Fantasea to provide valuable information for reference and guidance regarding Humpback whale migration behaviour. Fantasea guides are using our tracking software to add to the research database. 
​This helps evaluate behaviour patterns of whales in relation to observation craft.
Our permits for the use of drones in State and Federal waters where practical, only add to the accuracy and understanding of human and cetacean interaction.

​OCEAN PLASTICS

SAVING SEABIRDS 
PLASTICS IN SEABIRDS, WE
​HAVE PARTNERED TO ASSIST AND FUND RESEARCH WITH DR. JENNIFER LAVERS

Clinical Pathology of Plastic Ingestion in Marine Birds and Relationships with Blood Chemistry
​Jennifer L. Lavers,Ian Hutton,Alexander L. BonD

puskic_et_al_2019_fatty_acids_copy.pdf
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​In Australia, around 90% of Flesh-footed Shearwater adults and chicks contain plastic (Lavers & Bond 2016).
In 2011, one chick was found to have more than 275 pieces of plastic in it’s stomach (equivalent to an average human ingesting 10kg of plastic; Lavers et al. 2014).  Recent data (see Publications) indicate this species is one of the world's most heavily contaminated seabirds and chicks that ingest large amounts of plastic have poor body condition and likely suffer reduced juvenile survival.  Not surprisingly, Flesh-footed Shearwater populations on Lord Howe Island and in New Zealand have declined significantly over the past few decades.

Pollution of the environment with plastic debris is a significant and rapidly expanding threat to biodiversity due to its abundance, durability, and persistence. Current knowledge of the negative effects of debris on wildlife is largely based on consequences that are readily observed, such as entanglement or starvation. Many interactions with debris, however, result in less visible and poorly documented sublethal effects, and as a consequence, the true impact of plastic is underestimated. We investigated the sublethal effects of ingested plastic in Flesh-footed Shearwaters (Ardenna carneipes) using blood chemistry parameters as a measure of bird health. The presence of plastic had a significant negative effect on bird morphometrics and blood calcium levels and a positive relationship with the concentration of uric acid, cholesterol, and amylase. That we found blood chemistry parameters being related to plastic pollution is one of the few examples to date of the sublethal effects of marine debris and highlights that superficially healthy individuals may still experience the negative consequences of ingesting plastic debris. Moving beyond crude measures, such as reduced body mass, to physiological parameters will provide much needed insight into the nuanced and less visible effects of plastic.

OCEAN PLASTICS MICRO & MACRO PLASTICS

AUSMAP & TANGAROA BLUE

WE CONDUCT REGULAR SURVEYS
​FOR MICRO & MACRO PLASTICS

​Contact us info@livingocean.org.au for information on where, when and how to take part in thesecitizen science studies.

BEHAYVE 

TRACKING SOFTWARE FOR SMART DEVICES

​ANIMAL BEHAVIOUR APPLICATION FOR SMARTPHONE DEVICES RECORDS AND MAPS ANIMAL TRACKS, BEHAVIOURS AND ENVIRONMENT.

​Living Ocean’s humpback research focuses on the behaviour of large numbers of whales in a limited geographic area, calling for specialised software to facilitate data recording.
Bill Fulton, who leads Living Ocean’s Centre for Marine Studies, has developed a unique smartphone app that non-invasively tracks whales, records their behaviour and, using a wireless link to ship’s instruments, captures the environmental conditions they experience. The app is configurable to study any animal at all. ​Commonwealth & State licenses also allows drone (UAV) observation and recording.

IMAGE BY TOM CARROLL