Scientists report fewer minke whales

[David]

The largest aerial survey of whales along the Australian Antarctic coastline has found far fewer minke whales this year than last, despite covering three times the area.

Australian scientists on board boats have closely studied minke whales for the past 30 years, during which they have noticed a big drop in numbers.

Now researchers are going where boats cannot navigate.

Dr David Peel from the CSIRO oceans program, along with the Australian Antarctic Division, helped lead the two-month study.

He says they covered an incredible amount of water.

"We spent about 108 hours in the air and we travelled about 11,000 nautical miles, which is sort of equivalent of going from Sydney to London," he said.

"Basically it involved flying straight lines over the ocean in a set pattern, and five to six people within in the plane, looking out the windows on both sides trying to see if we could spot whales.

"If we did we had to take measurements and record observations."

It is the second aerial survey in as many years, but Dr Peel says this year's survey is much larger than the last.

He says he was very surprised at the low level of sightings.

"We did a smaller pilot survey last year - about a third of the time and a third of the distance travelled," he said.

"We saw about 76 minke whales. And this year we did three times as much effort and we saw only 47 whales."

The scientists say it is not whaling but a changing ice pattern preventing whale movement that is the cause of the low numbers.

Dr Peel says the ice along the Antarctic coastline was much different to last year.

"Last year it was a lot more open within the ice, there was a lot more areas of open water, whereas this year the ice was much denser and there was almost like a wall of ice blocking the inner bays," he said.

Dr Peel says the condition of ice can change drastically from year to year and this impacts the way whales migrate.

He says there is not necessarily a link between the low numbers and whaling.

"Given that we went over a year period, it isn't possible there would be that big a decrease in that time," he said.

"If we'd done a much longer, say 10 or 20-year survey, then obviously we could draw that bow, but with one year it was much more likely the whales just weren't where we were looking.

"There does seem to be a link between the ice conditions and how the whales behave, and obviously climate change would affect ice."

The research findings will be presented at the International Whaling Commission's scientific meeting in Morocco next week.

SOURCE: http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2010 ... 911484.htm

[lovelyjolie]

He says there is not necessarily a link between the low numbers and whaling.

Sure there's not. How many pregnant minkes have been killed over the last several years?

[David]

Exactly. He's just covering his arse and further states that they can't really tell anything because the study was only a year long...? But... the numbers are pretty telling and should indicate that more research should be done asap. At the very least.