Pupils set for whale of a time- The Knox School students James Moussa, Matt Twentyman, back, a

THREE students at The Knox School this week will embark on a unique ocean experience to aid marine research.
Matt Twentyman and James Moussa, 16, and Matt Laaksonen, 17, will live aboard the research ship Moondancer for a week to collect whale data for the Oceania Project.
The group will intercept humpback whales in Queensland’s Hervey Bay, collect skin samples and note their behaviour and movements.
The Year 10 and 11 students leave Melbourne for the trip on 29 August.
Matt Laaksonen’s older brother and sister also participated in the project.
Their stories have made him wary of cooking on board, but the boys weren’t nervous otherwise. “We’ll be right,” James said.
Qualified marine biologist and The Knox School science teacher Suzanne Mason will accompany the trio.
It will be the fifth student group Ms Mason has taken on the trip since she discovered the program in 2003.
“I thought this would be a really great idea because it was so close to home, and realised it was so good I could take students up,” she said.
The boys will work with PhD students on a long-term study covering whale behaviour and genetics.
“It’s an experience they won’t get anywhere else,” Ms Mason said.
“You might go to sleep and the whales are singing.”
Researchers established the Oceania Project in 1988 and have collected data in Hervey Bay for more than a decade.
The organisation is not for profit and dedicated to research and raising awareness about whales, dolphins and porpoises as well as the ocean environment.