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Endangered Blue Whale restores its population. Fifty-five individuals were spotted. in 2019 in the southern Atlantic Ocean, off the island of South Georgia.
Once there were large herds of whales, but hunting led to almost complete extinction of these animals. In the last 40-50 years in these the waters of all have twice seen huge mammals. Since 2007 registered a few more isolated cases.
“So go from almost complete emptiness to 55 whales per one year is amazing, “said Dr. Trevor Branch of University of Washington at Seattle.
The increase in the number of whales has been associated with the prohibition of whaling. So, the number of humpback whales has already increased almost to indicators beginning of the twentieth century.
During research, scientists identified whales as visually and acoustically, tracking their “song repertoire.” Sometimes they even managed to get skin samples in order to better study animal health status.
Blue whales are known to be the most massive creatures of all. ever lived on earth. Antarctic subspecies can grow up to 30 meters in length.
Before the start of industrial catch in the oceans, there were about ten individual populations of this species, total about 239 thousand individuals. But the size of the mammals made them profitable target for fishermen. Only between 1904-1925 in the waters South Georgia destroyed 33 thousand blue whales.
When the ban on whaling was introduced in 1966, there are almost no blue whales in the Southern Ocean. The last “census population “took place in 1997. It showed that the population could recover from several tens to 2280 individuals. The next official assessment will be published in 2021, and obviously she will show an even more noticeable addition.
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