Humpback Whales:

ABOVE: Mum and calf with Bottlenose Dolphins.

BELOW: Head rise (Humpback) with False Killer Whales.

ABOVE: Calf breaching.

BELOW: Calf head-on breach.

ABOVE and RIGHT: Diving.

BELOW: Surfacing.

Leanne is a cetacean citizen scientist/researcher based in the Port Stephens area. She has clocked up over 22 years of photographing cetaceans both along the east coast of Australia, off the South Island of New Zealand, and the Kingdom of Tonga. Leanne over 12 seasons with the Oceania Project’s 25-year study of the Humpback Whales in Hervey Bay, Queensland, one season with GBR Whale and Dolphin Research Program, nine seasons with Humpback Whales in the Kingdom of Tonga and completed a Whale and Dolphin Watching Guide and Operator Training Guide course in NSW. She has over 20 years’ experience with stranded/deceased marine mammals and assisted in necropsies.

Leanne attends marine mammal forums/lectures and contributes her photo IDs to Great Australian Bight Right Whale Study (Southern Right Whales), Far Out Ocean Research Collective (False Killer Whales), Killer Whales Australia, Minke Whale Project, Happywhale (Humpbacks) and Tongan Fluke Collective (Humpbacks).

Leanne is currently working on her own projects: A catalogue of Australian East Coast Humpback Whale Fluke IDs; and Port Stephens Indo-Pacific Bottlenose Dolphin Dorsal IDs. She is blessed to have some wonderful cetacean research friends that are most forthcoming with answers to her questions. Leanne says she is always learning.