When Ted Cheeseman first visited Antarctica in the early 1990s, the seas were eerily quiet. Once teeming with whales, the waters around South Georgia had been emptied by whaling decades earlier. “You’d hardly see a single whale back then,” Ted recalls. But over time, sightings became more frequent.
By the 2010s, the whales had returned in such numbers that guiding in the Antarctic meant seeing them everywhere. Now, you point your zodiac in any direction, and there’s a whale.
Ted Cheeseman
Launching the Happywhale
This remarkable recovery inspired Ted to launch Happywhale, one of the world’s largest citizen science projects for whale conservation. Combining his background in guiding polar expeditions with his lifelong love of science, Ted set out to create a platform where anyone with a camera could contribute to meaningful research.
The idea was simple but transformative: use photos of the undersides of humpback whale flukes to identify individual whales. “The patterns on their tails are like fingerprints—unique and lifelong,” Ted explains. The method wasn’t new—scientists had been using it since the 1960s—but the challenge was scaling it up. That’s where technology came in.
Whale Fluke 2019-01-29 Credit Tom-Jamar
Generative AI changed everything
Teaming up with Google’s Kaggle platform, Ted and Happywhale co-founder Ken Southerland and collaborators developed a machine-learningalgorithm capable of analyzing thousands of photos and identifying whales with incredible accuracy. “At first, it was slow going,” he admits, “but once we nailed the AI image recognition, everything changed.”
Today, Happywhale boasts over 1.3 million photos, identifying 109,000 individual whales across nearly 500,000 encounters. It’s the largest database of its kind, a powerful tool for understanding whale populations, migration patterns, and even threats like ship strikes.
The project is as much about people as it is about whales. Whale watchers, researchers, and everyday enthusiasts have contributed data, often uploading photos from remote corners of the globe. “The public plays a huge role,” Ted emphasises. “Every image helps us learn more.” Even historical photos, some dating back to the 1960s, have been added to the database, shedding light on the lifespans and recovery of individual whales.
One particularly famous whale, named Fran, was identified over 270 times in the database before her tragic death in 2022 due to a ship strike. Her calf, Aria, survived and has since been spotted healthy and thriving. Stories like these not only deepen our understanding of whale behavior but also highlight the urgent need for conservation.
A Global Look at Whale Data Credit Happywhale
Drones and whale research
Drone technology has also opened new doors for whale research. By capturing overhead images of dorsal fins and rostrum patterns, scientists are finding new ways to identify individuals, even without fluke photos. “It’s amazing what drones reveal,” Ted says. “Instead of seeing 10% of the whale, you see the whole animal.”
Despite its success, Happywhale faces challenges. Sustainability is a top priority for Ted, who envisions a future where the platform expands beyond humpbacks to include other marine species. He also hopes to make the project more interactive, using storytelling and digital tools to connect people with individual whales.
I want people to feel a relationship with these animals. When you know a whale by name, when you’ve seen its story, you care about what happens to it.
Ted Cheeseman
Happywhale is a testament to the power of citizen science and technology, but for Ted, it’s also a labor of love. “We’ve come so far, but there’s so much more we can do,” he reflects. By bringing together scientists, citizens, and cutting-edge tools, Happywhale is ensuring that the songs of the ocean’s giants won’t be silenced anytime soon.
Marine researcher John Totterdell has dedicated his career to studying killer whales, or orcas, focusing on populations off the West Australian coast. With decades of fieldwork, he has illuminated their intricate social structures, opportunistic hunting behaviors, and critical role in marine ecosystems.
