{"id":785029,"date":"2026-07-07T15:14:13","date_gmt":"2026-07-07T15:14:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/785029\/"},"modified":"2026-07-07T15:14:13","modified_gmt":"2026-07-07T15:14:13","slug":"whale-peel-harvey-estuary-fears-for-panicked-whale-swimming-in-wa-estuary-for-more-than-a-week","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/785029\/","title":{"rendered":"Whale Peel-Harvey Estuary: Fears for \u2018panicked\u2019 whale swimming in WA estuary for more than a week"},"content":{"rendered":"

Fears are growing for a juvenile whale that has spent more than a week in a Western Australia<\/a> estuary.<\/p>\n

Experts say the southern right whale has lost its way as it\u2019s unusual for the mammal to be so close to shore.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Fears are growing tonight for a juvenile whale that\u2019s spent more than a week in the Peel-Harvey Estuary in Western Australia.\u00a0Geographe Marine Research <\/p>\n

\u201cWe know it\u2019s a juvenile animal, so it\u2019s probably about a year old, has weaned from mum but possibly only recently,\u201d Geographe Marine Research<\/a> head of research Dr Capri Jolliffe said.<\/p>\n

The 10.6-metre animal has spent about nine days south of Perth<\/a> in the Peel-Harvey Estuary, which has an opening just 200 metres wide.<\/p>\n

The whale has been drawing crowds but the public has been warned to steer clear.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo we\u2019ve seen it going up and back, swimming<\/a> around quite quickly, almost a bit panicked, looking for a way out,\u201d Jolliffe said.<\/p>\n

The animal appears distressed and disoriented, swimming at a speed of about 8km\/h.<\/p>\n

\u201cAll of this behaviour going back and forth quite quickly\u00a0 is burning through energy stores and that\u2019s concerning,\u201d Jolliffe said.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Geographe Marine Research head of research Dr Capri Jolliffe called for people to be respectful of the whale.\u00a09News<\/p>\n

The Department of Biodiversity, Conservation and Attractions<\/a> is monitoring the whale.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhile it is unusual for a southern right whale to be in the estuary, they do migrate from Antarctic waters annually and can often be seen close to the shore in sheltered waters during Perth winters,\u201d a spokesperson said.<\/p>\n

\u201cOn-water assessments currently indicate the whale is exhibiting normal behaviour.\u201d<\/p>\n

The advice to those on the water is to keep their distance, at least 100 metres by boat and 60 metres for drone operators.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Experts say the southern right whale has lost its way as it\u2019s unusual for the mammal to be so close to shore.\u00a0Geographe Marine Research <\/p>\n

One small boat was filmed sailing<\/a> directly above the whale.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople really need to be respectful and observe from a distance,\u201d Jolliffe said.<\/p>\n

As for what happens next, that\u2019s up to the DBCA.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Among the options is closing the traffic bridge to reduce noise, in the hope the whale can navigate its way back out to the ocean.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Fears are growing for a juvenile whale that has spent more than a week in a Western Australia…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":785030,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[64,63,128,338],"class_list":["post-785029","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wildlife","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-science","tag-wildlife"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/785029","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=785029"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/785029\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/785030"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=785029"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=785029"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=785029"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}