Katy Fannei presses her face to an aircraft window as it soars high above the Southern Ocean.
From the vantage point, she scans and squints, looking for a shadow in the silky blue below.
"There's one right below me, Katy," pilot Mick Moir says.
"I'll do an orbit."
Whales came into Ms Fannei's life on the last day of a year-long Australian adventure.
The then German tourist was on a Rottnest Island beach when a tour guide approached and offered a free ride on a whale-watching boat.
She accepted, never considering how transformative the sight of a humpback and its calf would prove.
As they dipped and dived, she felt an awe that would change her life.
She promptly decided to pack up her things in Germany, move to Australia and study marine biology — a chain of events that would eventually inspire a West Australian community to write a new history with the ocean giants.
Hunted 'almost to extinction'
In Albany, on Western Australia's far south coast, whales have always commanded attention.
For decades, it was home to a thriving whaling industry, with the slaughter of southern right, sperm and humpback whales bringing much-needed jobs and money.
But in 1978, amid protests and political pressure, the industry finally followed the rest of the country and shut down for good.
More than 40 years later, southern right whales remain on the Australian government's endangered list.
"They were called the right whale because they were the right whale to hunt," Ms Fannei says, referencing their slow-moving nature, high blubber content and tendency to sit close to shore.
"It brought it almost to extinction."
She says they reproduce more slowly than other species, meaning it has taken longer for their numbers to rebound.
But as Ms Fannei was studying her masters of biological sciences at the University of Western Australia, she discovered a perfect opportunity to learn more about the gigantic mammals.
The state boasts two of three major aggregation points, and many more emerging aggregation areas, where southern rights come from Antarctica to breed and calve between late May and October.
Yet they had not previously been studied in great depth.
Ms Fannei teamed up with fellow researcher Max Fabry to change that, hoping their efforts would fill a knowledge gap and help conservation efforts.
"It really feels like it's our responsibility to make sure that when they're here in this vulnerable stage of calving, birthing, nursing and mating, that they are not disturbed and that they are looked after," Mr Fabry says.
But funding shortages initially made things difficult.
Another chance encounter
A photograph of a rare white whale pulled David and Lisa-Maree Ellett into the fight to protect the species.
The couple and their daughter had been flying over Cheynes Beach, east of Albany, when they snapped the elusive mammal, and later shared it to a local whale watching page on Facebook.
All sorts of questions poured in; from the community, from the media and, most persistently, from Ms Fannei and Mr Fabry.
"They had so many questions, we just thought it'd be easier if they came out and had a meal with us," Ms Ellett says.
It would prove another lucky break for Ms Fannei, with the meeting giving way to a game-changing idea.
"When I first come up with the idea with Katy to get a group of pilots to fly her along to do the survey, she just looked at me like I had two heads and said, 'Who's going to pay for that?'," Mr Ellett recounts.
"And I said, 'We're going to ask them to pay for it, Katy'."
Community pulls together to aid research
The Little White Whale Project is now facilitating the first weekly aerial survey of southern right whales in the area, and possibly the world.
Once a week, one of 13 pilots on a roster sheet will fly Ms Fannei along a 450-kilometre stretch of coastline, from near Albany to Point Ann in the Fitzgerald River National Park, so she can count whales.
They are careful to stick to the regulations and not get too close.
All images supplied by the Little White Whale Project for this story were taken under a DBCA wildlife licence, with a UWA animal ethics approval and conducted in accordance with CASA regulations.
"At the moment we are at about five flight hours per survey," she says.
"I think last survey I counted about 89 whales including calves."
Sometimes a second plane and pilot are needed to fly her back.
At the end of the flight, she tallies up all the sightings, to compare across the weeks.
It builds on knowledge compiled through an annual aerial whale count between Fremantle and Ceduna, which has taken place every year since 1976.
"The planes were used for the spotters for the whaling station back when they were whaling," Mr Ellett says.
"And now we're using them to aid the southern right's recovery."
But it doesn't come cheap, with Mr Ellett guessing last year's fuel cost about $35,000.
This year, he expects it to hit $50,000.
"It's all voluntarily provided. So, I felt bad to ask for that much," Ms Fannei says.
"But in the end, they are really passionate about the project as well and kind of grateful to see the whales."
Another sponsor has provided the pair with a car, so they can monitor the same whales with drones throughout the week.
This is Mr Fabry's specialty, and he has research permits from the WA Department of Biodiversity, Conservations and Attractions, as well as an ethics approval from the University of Western Australia, allowing him to fly near the animals.
He says the whales have patches on their heads called callosities, which form a unique pattern like a fingerprint, allowing him to recognise individual whales.
Mr Fabry hopes the research could also provide insights about broader-scale conservation.
"[The southern right whales] are a direct link between the Antarctic environment and us," he says.
"[They are] a great indicator of how the Antarctic ecosystem is being affected by climate change."
'Home of the whale'
The natural world is facing myriad threats from climate change, to pollution, to environmental degradation.
But it retains some defence mechanisms, including the ability to inspire a motivating sense of awe.
The Little White Whale Project, and its members desire to see the town write a new history with whales, is a stark example of that.
"Albany is known as one of the places that had the last whaling station in Australia," Ms Ellett says.
"And it's a big tourist destination for that; people go out and visit the whaling station.
"This was also an opportunity for us to be a part of the next piece of history."
On a Saturday afternoon in September, between mouthfuls of a barbecue lunch, the pilots and their partners mill about an Albany Airport hangar, discussing the latest sightings and plans for upcoming surveys.
"I think full circle is the best way to describe it, seeing as everyone's always been so involved with whales in this region, in one manner or another," Mr Fabry says.
"So, people refer to southern right whale as 'their whale'.
"It feels a bit like the home of the whale down here. It really does."
