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MEXICO: Antarctic marine scientists have been eavesdropping on the world’s largest creatures, using directional sonobuoys to listen for the low rumbling songs to guide their ship to the whales in the icy Southern Ocean.
Australian Antarctic Division Voyage Science Leader, Mike Double, says after travelling a large distance without sighting any whales, they were “staggered” to see over 80 of the rare whales in a relatively small area.
“With such a patchy distribution, it is only possible to study this endangered species efficiently using the acoustic technology developed by the Australian Antarctic Division,” Dr Double said in a statement.
The scientists photo-identified 58 individual blue whales during their six-week Australia-New Zealand Antarctic Ecosystem Voyage to the Southern Ocean, investigating the region’s top predators.
The images will help estimate the population size, rate of recovery and movements of the endangered creatures.
During the voyage they recorded more than 40,000 calls over 520 hours.
Using echosounders they were able to map, characterise and monitor the krill in the vicinity of the blue whale and found the swarms were denser than those found anywhere else.
The research aims to investigate key questions identified by the International Whaling Commission’s Southern Ocean Research Partnership.
