New sightings and a stranding of blue whales in the SE Atlantic suggest a recovering, but still rare, population
www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.2...
Blue whale news
Also, most of these wintering blue whales (1 Oct-15 May) are far offshore (more than 125 km from the 200 m shelf contour), and would never be picked up by the intensive small-boat surveys used to get photo-ID abundance estimates
doi.org/10.3389/fmar...
Blue whale news
In Lamakera, Indonesia (where baleen whaling still occurs), a community survey revealed that 55% see blue whales often. Blue whales are reported caught in in 2021 (baby) and 2022 (adult)*, but should not be.
bioflux.com.ro/docs/2026.71...
*it is possible these were Omura's or Bryde's whales.
Brilliant work by Rose Hilmo shows individual blue whale tracks in *winter* on feeding grounds in the NE Pacific, demonstrating some that are transiting and others hanging out
doi.org/10.3389/fmar...
Blue whale news
Blue whale news
The interesting thing is in October NE Pacific blue whales are traveling *north* instead of south, and only heading south in January, far into winter. A secret feeding spot in the north late in the season, go up and snack for a bit and then head south for breeding season?
doi.org/10.3389/fmar...
Blue whale skeleton installed at Hatfield Marine Center, Newport, Oregon!
news.oregonstate.edu/news/install...
New call types reported for eastern Indian Ocean blue whales, in addition to the classic song sequences and social D-calls
doi.org/10.3389/fmar...
Test of the effect of marine vibrators on blue whale behavior reveals some avoidance in lower prey densities but no change when prey density is high.
doi.org/10.1007/978-...
Pretty cool project: Open Tree of Life. Here are the baleen whales in all their glory, with the surprising side story that blue and fin whales, which hybridize frequently, are not very closely related (B. musculus and B. physalus in the figure)
...marine vibrators are an update from seismic airguns that focus their energy on low-frequency noise to survey for oil and gas under the ocean floor. But these low frequencies are at the levels that blue and fin whales communicate. This study suggests limited impacts.
doi.org/10.1007/978-...
