<
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/article/2024/may/06/im-a-blue-whale-im-here-researchers-listen-with-delight-to-songs-that-hint-at-antarctic-resurgence>
"Centuries of industrial whaling left only a few hundred Antarctic blue whales
alive, making it almost impossible to find them in the wild.
New research suggests the population may be recovering. Australian scientists
and international colleagues spent two decades listening for their distinctive
songs and calls, and have found the whales – the largest animals ever to have
lived – swimming across the Southern Ocean with growing regularity.
Analysis of thousands of hours of audio, collected with underwater microphones
and secondhand military-issued submarine listening devices, suggests whale
numbers are stable or on the rise, according to the Australian Antarctic
Division senior research scientist Brian Miller.
“When you look back to before this work was started by the AAD, we really just
had so few encounters with these animals – and now we can produce them on
demand,” Miller said.
“We can tell you where they’re frequenting, we can tell you that we’re hearing
them more often. So that’s progress.”
The whales were heard increasingly often in the Southern Ocean from 2006 to
2021, according to a new paper collating the findings of Australian and
international researchers’ seven voyages across the period.
“Either they’re either increasing in number or we’re increasing in our ability
to find them, and both of those things are good news,” Miller said."
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
