Many of you will remember Jenny Schmidt, an ex-CFI at the Royal Aero Club. She has just recently returned from a 4 day whale counting survey between Perth and Ceduna South Australia.
The survey is undertaken within a high wing, single engine aircraft (Cessna 172) and is crewed by a pilot and a photographer; who each observes and counts the whale numbers.
A total of 732 whales were sighted over this four day stint, which compared to documented totals in 2010 are on a steady increase. The main purpose of this aerial survey research is to monitor population trends and abundance, as well as studies of linkages between population dynamics and environmental changes in the whales’ feeding grounds.
Jenny commented that hundreds were sighted near Bremer Bay and even a couple 500m from the Busselton coastline.
We at the Royal Aero Club are so proud of Jenny and congratulate her on a job well done!
