The news comes as the first southern right whales of the season have been sighted in south-west waters.

Wilma, which was one of Warrnambool's most regular visitors from the early 1980s until 2002, was easily identifiable by the corner missing out of her tail.

Department of Environment, Land, Water and Planning natural environment program officer Mandy Watson said that identification research had found that Wilma had relocated to the Head of Bight after her last visit to Warrnambool and had since had four more calves.

She said Wilma had been a regular visitor to Logan's Beach since they started keeping whale records in the 1980s.

Ms Watson said Wilma researchers had been monitoring her movement in The Bite for the past 14 years, and with whales producing calves on a three-year cycle, Wilma had given birth to one almost every three years.

The first whale of the 2019 season was spotted in Portland on Sunday afternoon off the Lee Breakwater jetty swimming between large ships docked in the harbour, and on Monday another one was seen at Cape Bridgewater.

Ms Watson said it was impossible to tell if it was the same whale or a second one.

She said they were expecting to see whales closer to Warrnambool "any day now" with the first whales sighting usually happening in Portland.

Ms Watson said the whales spotted at Logan's Beach were those which tend to stay for the whole season.

She said whales usually arrived at Logan's Beach in May, disappear for a few days and then return with their calves.

Portland Tourism Association president Dennis Carr said Portland was living up to its profile as a whale watching capital.

"Last year Portland and the surrounding region experienced record breaking whale sightings off our coastlines, delighting locals and visitors to our region from May through to October," he said.

"A total of 115 Southern Right Whales, 30 Humpback Whales and three Orca Whale sightings were sighted off coastlines near Portland, Narrawong, Cape Nelson and the Cape Bridgewater during the annual whale migration period.

"Following on from this unprecedented success, this confirmed visitor on Sunday is a promising sign that we will experience yet another year of high whale visitation.

He said that with the interest generated online from Sunday's visitor, the region was now expecting a huge influx of whale watching visitors to the region.

"I'm looking forward to the positive benefits for our economy and local business operators from these welcome visitors," Mr Carr said.

Have you signed up to The Standard's daily newsletter and breaking news emails? You can register below and make sure you are up to date with everything that's happening in the south-west.