{"id":765304,"date":"2026-06-28T07:31:18","date_gmt":"2026-06-28T07:31:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/765304\/"},"modified":"2026-06-28T07:31:18","modified_gmt":"2026-06-28T07:31:18","slug":"nsw-volunteers-battle-wind-and-rain-to-record-east-coast-whale-sightings","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/765304\/","title":{"rendered":"NSW volunteers battle wind and rain to record east coast whale sightings"},"content":{"rendered":"

Hundreds of volunteers have braved the wind and rain for a citizen science experiment to count migrating whales.<\/p>\n

The Organisation for the Rescue and Research of Cetaceans’ (ORRCA) annual whale census has taken place across the NSW east coast today.<\/p>\n

It sees volunteers across 27 coastal headlands spanning the state count the number, species and behaviour of travelling whales.<\/p>\n

\"whale<\/p>\n

More than 600 volunteers registered for ORRCA’s 27th annual whale survey this year.\u00a0 (Supplied: ORRCA)<\/p>\n

ORRCA’s head of research, Annie Post, said the dedication of volunteers was put to the test by wet and windy conditions across much of the coast.<\/p>\n

“The weather hasn’t been terribly on our side,” she said.<\/p>\n

“But it’s been great to see that we’ve still had people getting out there and taking the count.”<\/p>\n

Whale census<\/p>\n

The organisation has adjusted the methodology of the census this year after a record-breaking survey in 2025<\/a> that saw 5,000 whales counted.<\/p>\n

Ms Post said volunteers across 24 census sites simultaneously counted whales for two hours on Sunday, in a bid to avoid double-counting.<\/p>\n

“Depending on where people are out counting, we may have issues where they see the same whale in one location in the morning and another location in the afternoon,” she said.<\/p>\n

\"a<\/p>\n

Tathra was one of 24 official census sites in NSW. (ABC South East NSW: Adriane Reardon)<\/p>\n

“By doing this shorter two-hour period, we can just get a little snapshot of the day \u2026 with no risk of double-counting.”<\/p>\n

The new method saw 520 adult whale sightings and 30 calves recorded between 10am and 12pm.<\/p>\n

More than 1,950 whales and 150 dolphins have been recorded across New South Wales since 6am, with counting still underway.<\/p>\n

Treasures from the deep<\/p>\n

Just minutes after the survey started at Tathra on the NSW South Coast, volunteers were lucky to see six whales breach in quick succession.<\/p>\n

Tathra ORRCA volunteer John Vilskersts said the sight was a shot in the arm for the new system.<\/p>\n

“Breaching, spouting, they were just playing around out there,” he said.<\/p>\n

\"whale<\/p>\n

Tens of thousands of whales are currently travelling north across the NSW east coast, as part of their annual migration.\u00a0 (Supplied: Khynan Gardner\u00a0)<\/p>\n

Tathra local Melissa Ferrara said a deep love for whales had led her to join the survey for the first time, along with her 91-year-old father.<\/p>\n

“They really speak to me, I always feel so privileged when I get to see them,” she said.<\/p>\n

In Port Kembla, around 30 volunteers armed with rain jackets and umbrellas gathered at 10am for the morning count.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

ORRCA volunteers conducted the annual survey of migrating whales across the NSW east coast.\u00a0 (ABC Illawarra: Charles Rushforth\u00a0)<\/p>\n

Among them was ORRCA’s head of rescue, Lyndell Roberts, who said the census day was something volunteers looked forward to every year.<\/p>\n

“We put a lot of effort into the survey; it’s great to share it with the community as well,” she said.<\/p>\n

“We’ve got 1,200 members and a lot of them are out today, which is pretty incredible.<\/p>\n

“I think days like today are really important just to raise awareness that we’re here, that people can call us if they see a marine mammal in distress or hauled up on a beach.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Hundreds of volunteers have braved the wind and rain for a citizen science experiment to count migrating whales.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":765305,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[64,63,66329,129934,11698,364708,115827,128,14330,364707,18204,338,4526],"class_list":["post-765304","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wildlife","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-eden","tag-migaloo","tag-orrca","tag-population-count","tag-port-kembla","tag-science","tag-survey","tag-whale-census","tag-whales","tag-wildlife","tag-wollongong"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/765304","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=765304"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/765304\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/765305"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=765304"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=765304"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=765304"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}