Blue whale song heard from 750kms away
Antarctic marine scientists have been eavesdropping on one of the world’s large creatures.
They’ve managed to detect the rumbling song of the rare Antarctic blue whale located almost 750 kilometres away.
The scientist use directional sonobuoys to listen for the low rumblings to guide their ship to the whales in the Southern Ocean.
“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,” said Australian Antarctic Division Voyage Science Leader, Mike Double, in a statement.
The team recorded more than 40,000 calls over 520 hours, helping them photo-identify 58 individual blue wales. This will help estimate the population size, rate of recovery and movements of the endangered creatures.
The research will be used to investigate key questions identified by the International Whaling Commission's Southern Ocean Research Partnership.
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