Photo call out: Warrnambool famous whale Wilma is a mum again

But they need the public's help to do it.

Researchers are hoping anyone with old pictures of Wilma, or her offspring, will share their photos with them to help fill gaps in Wilma's story and discover more about other southern right whales.

Photos - specifically those from 1982-2005 - can be sent to the Whaleface page at: whaleface.swifft.net.au

While Wilma no longer calls the Logans Beach whale nursery her home, researchers believe her legacy lives on with some of the breeding females that regularly visit Warrnambool among her offspring.

Senior research scientist Kasey Stamation, of the Department of Energy, Environment and Climate Action's Arthur Rylah Institute, said it was assumed Wilma - who had a distinctive piece missing from her fluke - had died after she disappeared from Warrnambool waters in 2002.

But it was "a pretty good day" in 2016, Dr Stamation said, when they were matching their catalogue with the national database and discovered Wilma had been sighted at the Head of Bight in 2005.

She was spotted there again with a calf in tow in 2007, 2010, 2013, 2017 and again this year. Based on reports in The Standard dating back to 1982, researchers believe Wilma is at least 44-years-old.

Photos from this year show Wilma has some skin sloughings, and Dr Stamation said it wasn't unusual for skin to peel.

"There's quite a significant amount on her back, so you'll see she looks like she has some pale stripes on her back that weren't there previously. She looks a bit different," she said. "Assuming that 1985 was her first calf and assuming that she was six - because the age to maturity is generally six-years-old - that would make her 44 at least. She could be even older than that.

"It would be really good if we could find out." Dr Stamation said research into the whales often turned up more questions than answers.

For example, they still don't know how long southern right whales breed for - a question they hope Wilma might be able to answer. "The records that we've got prior to our monitoring are just whaling records, they wouldn't have been able to age them back then," she said.

"We want to reach out to the community to see if they've got any old photos of Wilma so we can fill some gaps in the catalogue.

"If anyone has any photos of Wilma's calves too because it would be really good if we could match her calves to adults now because I'm pretty sure some of our breeding females are her offspring."

It has been a quiet year for whales and their offspring with none born in Victorian waters this season, and only one reported in New South Wales.

"We were hoping it was a late season... if they did calve now it would be really unusual but it's not out of the question," Dr Stamation said. "We've had other years where there have been none or few. It does go up and down."

Two southern right whales were recently sighted near Childers Cove and another near Portland.

Dr Stamation said there was still no real sign the southern right whale population was recovering at a great rate - a three to four-year calving cycle and the small population making progress slow.

Food availability due to the changing climate was having an impact with other whale populations extending their calving intervals to four or five years, she said.

"They're looking smaller. I think they're getting a bit stressed potentially because of lack of food," she said.

Dr Stamation said she hoped this year's dip would be followed by another good season.

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