Rahul SomvanshiAustralia’s annual humpback whale migration is one of the most consistent seasonal spectacles on the east and west coasts. This year it has been erratic in ways that are worrying researchers and creating real headaches for councils, beaches, and communities.
Researchers and wildlife watchers have reported unusually low sightings along the east coast, a spike in strandings, and rare false killer whale appearances close to shore — a pattern that wildlife watchers describe as unlike recent seasons. The migration typically sees humpbacks travelling north from Antarctic feeding grounds to warmer tropical waters to breed, then returning south. This year’s count along the eastern seaboard is running low.
The cause is, at this point, a hypothesis. Researchers have pointed to ocean temperature shifts and disruptions to krill availability — the humpback’s main food source — as possible explanations for the unusual patterns. Neither has been confirmed as the driver of this season’s anomalies.
At the same time, strandings are up, and the carcasses have created complications.
At Perth’s South Cottesloe Beach, a decomposing whale carcass led to the beach being closed to the public. At City Beach in Perth, local government arranged a crane removal at a reported cost of $180,000. Near Sydney’s Coogee, Indigenous rangers responded to a stranding and publicly called for the carcass to be towed out to sea — returning it to the ocean where it can feed deep-sea ecosystems, consistent with traditional sea-burial protocols. The local council’s planned approach involved crane removal and landfill disposal.
The cultural gap in how carcasses are handled
The disagreement at Coogee is not simply logistical. Indigenous Australians have maintained relationships with the ocean and its animals for tens of thousands of years, and protocols around whale carcasses carry cultural and spiritual weight that municipal waste management frameworks do not account for. The ranger position is that towing a whale back to sea is both the respectful and the ecologically sound choice. The council’s approach — the same method that cost $180,000 at City Beach — reduces the matter to operational cost and public health.
This tension is not new, but the increased frequency of strandings this season has made it more visible and more contested. The Coogee case drew media coverage partly because the Indigenous rangers made their position publicly clear, and the contrast with the City Beach crane bill gave the economic dimension a sharp edge.
False killer whales appearing in nearshore Australian waters add another dimension to the ecological strangeness. These animals are more typically found in open ocean; their presence close to shore is unusual and raises questions about what is changing in the marine environment. CSIRO researchers tracking other long-distance marine journeys — including the spawning migration of millions of eels into the deep Tasman Sea (https://www.karmactive.com/csiro-2-8-million-eels-spawning-tasmania-patience-seamount/) — are building a broader picture of how Australian ocean ecosystems are responding to changing conditions.
For those living near beaches on the east and west coasts, the practical consequences of a poor migration season are periodic beach closures, shark-risk warnings associated with carcasses attracting sharks, and the costs of municipal removal. The $180,000 City Beach figure is likely to feature in council budget discussions. Economic pressures on local governments are a global theme this year, with debt burdens affecting public services in France and elsewhere (https://www.karmactive.com/france-bond-yields-protests-limoges-fire-2026/), and the same constraints shape how Australian councils approach costly carcass removal.
ABC, The West Australian, WAtoday, and The Inertia have all confirmed the beach closures and the carcass situations. The broader migration data is being tracked by researchers along both coasts.
Australia is not alone in seeing unusual marine behaviour this year. Extreme weather events elsewhere in the region have disrupted ocean systems, including the cyclone that struck India’s Andhra Pradesh coast, disrupting coastal communities and marine environments (https://www.karmactive.com/cyclone-arnab-andhra-pradesh-trains-cancelled-dead/). Ocean temperature and weather patterns connect across regional basins in ways researchers are still mapping. The humpback season typically wraps up as temperatures drop and whales begin their southern return. If this year’s low sightings reflect a genuine route change rather than late timing, the full picture will emerge in the seasonal count data over the coming weeks.
