A new marine research company called Abyss Project saw seals and whales during its first eco tourism adventure off the Wollongong coast on Friday.
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Co-director Carl Fallon filmed seals underwater at The Five Islands for the AbyssProject Facebook page.
It was a trial to determine interest in the new venture that will based a brand new 900 horsepower 12 metre off-shore marine research vessel at Wollongong Harbour this winter.
That will allow Abyss Project to run regular eco tours and provide an opportunity for anyone interested in taking part in a research project to venture out with the crew.
Eco tourists can dive, snorkel or stay on the new boat which has a whale watching platform on top.
Mr Fallon expects considerable interest in what Abyss Project is doing in Wollongong.
"There is nothing like it Sydney and there has definitely never been a vessel like this based in the Illawarra," he said.
"It was phenomenal out at the Five Islands today. There were seals and fish everywhere and huge stingrays. We actually saw a small humpback whale. It was a little calf and they are not meant to be calving on the way up the coast".
The start of the new eco tours coincide with findings from a recent Abyss Project research study into the impact of recent storm events and bushfires over summer on the marine environment off the NSW coast being released on Monday.
Mr Fallon has run a dive company in Sydney called Abyss Scuba Diving for 20 years and has worked with universities doing community engagement work with them when they receive grants for projects they have applied for. He has also done citizen science work with school groups and individuals.
When he was designing three new boats Mr Fallon decided to start his own marine research company and invite people to come along on projects he sees as critically important to the environment.
Now from Wollongong eco tourists can take part in studying everything from the population distribution and health of sea life, the whereabouts the seals on The Five Islands, human impact on different marine species and the level of pollution such as plastics in the ocean.
Abyss Scuba Diving and Abyss Commercial Diving also regularly organise beach and underwater clean up days.
Co-director Natalie Simmonds is a marine biologist who is in the process of drafting up marine research projects for the eco tour trips the community can get involved in from Wollongong.
"We are also working the indigenous community at La Perouse who have really taken this project under their wing. We are using their knowledge and stories to guide a lot of our research," Mr Fallon said.
"One thing we are doing is whale acoustic monitoring. We deploy underwater sound recorders that record the whale song. Every year the whale song changes and the whales all sing that same song. It is also regional. So as they transition up and down the coast the song changes slightly".
Mr Fallon said they were going to launch the marine research eco tours in Wollongong earlier in the year but COVID-19 delayed their plans.
He said The Five Island seal eco tours will be done weekly and anyone interested in taking part can book on the Abyss Scuba Diving website until the Abyss Project website is completed.
"We will be running different eco tours three to four times a week so there will be many opportunities for people to get involved," he said.
"We are also engineering some deep exploration video systems that allow us to capture imagery down to 1500 metres.
"I don't think this has ever been done off the coast down here. We will also be able to live stream it using fibre optics and post it straight to the Internet".
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Greg Ellis
Almost four decades in electronic, print and digital media. A writer, presenter, emcee, photographer and videographer with degrees in business management, marketing and human resources and tertiary qualifications in photography.
Almost four decades in electronic, print and digital media. A writer, presenter, emcee, photographer and videographer with degrees in business management, marketing and human resources and tertiary qualifications in photography.
