[whales blowing]
DR NICK GALES (EXPEDITION LEADER): Well it's all part of a bigger picture, I suppose,
of understanding whales in the Southern Ocean.
In the International Whaling Commission, in which
Australia and New Zealand play a very major role,
there's the ongoing important debate about whaling.
DR NICK GALES (EXPEDITION LEADER): Well, we'll confirm, after a discussion with Andrew and Hully,
with the weather and conditions if that, effectively,
we should be ready to be operational this afternoon.
ANTHONY HULL (VOYAGE LEADER): We've just had a briefing this morning with the science crew
and we're making serious preparations.
Hopefully we might even launch some small boats this afternoon
and try to do some sampling work on the whales,
so yeah, it's getting pretty exciting
and everyone's really keen to start work.
[whale blowing]
A blow.
[whales blowing]
[no audio]
[plastic bag crumpling]
DR MIKE DOUBLE (WHALE RESEARCHER): So this a biopsy sample that we just took off the humpback whale.
It's nice to get a sample so we can now sex the whale
as well, and also we'll use it for genotyping too.
DR NICK GALES (EXPEDITION LEADER): Most of these whales were taken down to very
tiny numbers and are now recovering,
and so we want to know where they're recovering
in the Southern Ocean - it's a big area.
These are big questions for the whole Southern Ocean ecosystem
that we can at last start to contribute through these non-lethal tools.