Minke
Whale Expeditions on the Undersea Explorer
How you
can help
Undersea
Explorer's Minke Research Program is
funded by adventure diving tourism and
benefactor support, allowing the
permanent employment of marine
scientists and to provide berth space,
equipment and funding for external
scientists onboard Undersea Explorer.
Since 1995 Undersea Explorer has
facilitated hundreds of hours of
in-water and surface observations of
Dwarf Minke Whales - resulting in
detailed movement, behaviour and size
estimation records of the whales.
The
Research Program obtained the first recorded
vocalization of this species,
which has assisted in acoustic tracking of the minkes. During the
expeditions, individual whales are identified by colour patterns on
the body, scars and other unique features, and resightings of known
animals have occurred from days apart to
two years later.
