A research team from the Australian Marine Mammal Research Centre has spent a week in Eden taking genetic samples from humpback whales on their northerly migration.
The pilot program could lead to the first satellite tagging study of the humpback migration off the east coast being based in Eden next year for an extensive period.
The studies are to help determine who exactly in the humpback whale world is travelling up the east coast and their relationship with the other much smaller Pacific migrations including those to French Polynesia and Tonga.
As a comparison, around 9,500 humpbacks are currently migrating up the east coast compared to only a tenth of that number elsewhere in the Pacific.
Studies on the west coast of Australia indicate the number of humpback whales migrating there is around 13,000.
"We are certainly looking at that possibility off Eden," project coordinator Mike Double said. "We do it off the west coast at the moment.
"It will provide us with a better idea of the northern migratory pattern and location of the calving grounds."
Mr Double said Eden also appeared to be the best spot to monitor the southerly migration before the whales dispersed to their southern feeding grounds.
Satellite tagging was delicate work, he said, with researchers needing to be careful and conservative about how they set the tags. They needed to find calm and cooperative pods.
His team, from the Marine Mammal Research Centre, which us based at the Australian Antarctive Division in Hobart, is working in collaboration with various groups around the world to make sure the tags used are reliable.
"We have a really good idea of humpback whale numbers on the east coast through a number of sighting stations including the one at Point Lookout on Stradbroke Island, which has kept records going back many years," he said.
They show exponential growth in humpback whale numbers of around 10.8 per cent a year.
"This is phenomenally quick growth, but it is off a very low base.
"We estimate that the total population is still at only about 30 per cent of pre-whaling day numbers."
The count off the west coast is not regarded as nearly so accurate but that is being addressed by increased Federal funding for a land and air based survey to operate from Hartog island near Shark Bay.
The west coast humpback whale population was thought to be recovering at a similar rate to that on the east coast, Mr Double said.
Other members of the team here this week were research collaborators David Donnelly and David Paton and PhD research student Natalie Schmitt.