Surprise baby whale sightings along a busy 'humpback highway' prompt new worries
Whale researchers combined modern-day sightings with 19th century records and are revealing new information about when and where humpback whales give birth along a busy 'humpback highway' off Australia.
Humpback calves are being born not just in a calving zone at the end of the migration route, but along the way and even farther south than previously understood, according to a study led by researchers at the University of New South Wales.
That pattern raises new issues, including the need to increase awareness to protect newborn whales throughout their winter journeys, the authors wrote in the study published May 21 in the scientific journal Frontiers in Marine Science.
'Hundreds of humpback calves were born well outside the established breeding grounds,' said Tracey Rogers of the University of New South Wales, a senior author. 'Giving birth along the 'humpback highway' means these vulnerable calves, who are not yet strong swimmers, are required to swim long distances much earlier in life than if they were born in the breeding grounds.'
Newborn humpbacks aren't as strong as adult whales, and 'mums with newborns swim much more slowly,' Rogers said. 'Newborns are like Great Dane puppies. They have those long, enormous fins that they need to grow into, and they're not very strong swimmers. So they rest a lot of the time on their mum's back.'
Once near extinction, humpback whales have rebounded thanks to conservation programs. Today the population is estimated at roughly 50,000.
Sightings for the study were collected across an area extending from Queensland down to Tasmania and across to New Zealand's South Island.
'Historically, we believed that humpback whales migrating north from the nutrient-rich Southern Ocean were travelling to warmer, tropical waters such as the Great Barrier Reef to calve,' says lead author Jane McPhee-Frew, a PhD candidate at the University of New South Wales Sydney and whale watching skipper.
'The pattern we're seeing is mother whales with calves travelling through some of the busiest shipping lanes and urbanised regions," said McPhee-Frew. Her first calf sighting in Newcastle in 2023, home of the largest coal export port in the world, was within a busy shipping lane.
'This means these vulnerable animals are exposed to risks like boat strikes, entanglements, pollution – and just general public unawareness,' she said.
Questions remain about the whales' migration, including how the humpback mothers use different marine environments along their migration route and why they continue to travel north after giving birth, even though there's really no food for them in the tropics.
Dinah Voyles Pulver, a national correspondent for USA TODAY, covers climate change, wildlife and the environment. Reach her at dpulver@usatoday.com or @dinahvp on Bluesky or X or dinahvp.77 on Signal.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Surprise humpback whale calf sightings off Australia prompt worries
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The disease can devastate an entire coral colony in only a few weeks to months. The exact cause of SCTLD is still unknown, but it appears to be linked to some kind of harmful bacteria. Currently, the most common treatment for SCTLD is using a paste that contains the antibiotic amoxicillin on diseased corals. However, antibiotics are not a silver bullet. This amoxicillin balm can temporarily halt SCTLD's spread, but it needs to be frequently reapplied to the lesions on the corals. This takes time and resources, while increasing the likelihood that the microbes causing SCTLD might develop resistance to amoxicillin and related antibiotics. 'Antibiotics do not stop future outbreaks,' Valerie Paul, a study co-author and the head scientist at the Smithsonian Marine Station at Fort Pierce, Florida, said in a statement. 'The disease can quickly come back, even on the same coral colonies that have been treated.' Paul and her colleagues have spent over six years investigating whether beneficial microorganisms (aka probiotics) could be a longer lasting alternative to combat this pathogen. Just like humans, corals are host to communities known as microbiomes that are bustling with all different types of bacteria. Some of these miniscule organisms produce antioxidants and vitamins that can help keep their coral hosts healthy. [ Related: Caribbean coral is getting sick and dying. A probiotic could help. ] First, the team looked at the microbiomes of corals that are impervious to SCTLD to try and harvest probiotics from these disease-resistant species. In theory, these could be used to strengthen the microbiomes of susceptible corals. They tested over 200 strains of bacteria from disease-resistant corals and published a study in 2023 about the probiotic Pseudoalteromonas sp. McH1-7 (or McH1-7 for short). Taken from the great star coral (Montastraea cavernosa), this probiotic produces several antibacterial compounds. Having such a stacked antibacterial toolbox made McH1-7 an ideal candidate to combat a pathogen like SCTLD. They initially tested McH1-7 on live pieces of M. cavernosa and found that the probiotic reliably prevented the spread of SCTLD in the lab. After these successful lab tests, the wild ocean called next. The team conducted several field tests on a shallow reef near Fort Lauderdale, focusing on 40 M. cavernosa colonies that showed signs of SCTLD. Some of the corals in these colonies received a paste containing the probiotic McH1-7 that was applied directly to the disease lesions. They treated the other corals with a solution of seawater containing McH1-7 and covered them using weighted plastic bags. The probiotics were administered inside the bag in order to cover the entire coral colony. 'This created a little mini-aquarium that kept the probiotics around each coral colony,' Paul said. For two and a half years, they monitored the colonies, taking multiple rounds of tissue and mucus samples to see how the corals' microbiomes were changing over time. They found that the McH1-7 probiotic successfully slowed the spread of SCTLD when it was delivered to the entire colony using the bag and solution method. According to the samples, the probiotic was effective without dominating the corals' natural microbes. While using this probiotic appears to be an effective treatment for SCTLD among the reefs of northern Florida, additional work is needed to see how it could work in other regions. Similar tests on reefs in the Florida Keys have been conducted, with mixed preliminary results, likely due to regional differences in SCTLD. The team believes that probiotics still could become a crucial tool for combatting SCTLD across the Caribbean, especially as scientists fine tune how to administer them. Importantly, these beneficial bacteria support what corals already do naturally. 'Corals are naturally rich with bacteria and it's not surprising that the bacterial composition is important for their health,' Paul said. 'We're trying to figure out which bacteria can make these vibrant microbiomes even stronger.'
