Latest news with #TraceyRogers
The Herald Scotland
22-05-2025
- Science
- The Herald Scotland
Surprise humpback whale calf sightings off Australia prompt worries
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@ or @dinahvp on Bluesky or X or dinahvp.77 on Signal.
Yahoo
21-05-2025
- Science
- Yahoo
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@ 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
USA Today
21-05-2025
- Science
- USA Today
Surprise baby whale sightings along a busy 'humpback highway' prompt new worries
Surprise baby whale sightings along a busy 'humpback highway' prompt new worries Whale researchers have new data about humpback whales giving birth along a busy 'humpback highway' off Australia. Show Caption Hide Caption Humpback whale almost swipes diver swimming with orcas A diver, who was freediving with orcas, narrowly avoided being hit by the humpback's tail in Norway. 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@ or @dinahvp on Bluesky or X or dinahvp.77 on Signal.
Yahoo
20-05-2025
- Science
- Yahoo
Humpback whales can give birth while migrating thousands of miles
Humpback whales (Megaptera novaeangliae) are master migrators. Some populations of this baleen whale species travel upwards of 5,000 miles per year from colder waters to feed, towards warmer tropical waters where they give birth and care for their calves. However, new research on a population off Australia's eastern coast indicates that their trips to more balmy waters are not as essential to calving as biologists thought. Calves in this population can actually be born in colder waters near New Zealand or Tasmania–about 932 miles further south (1,500 kilometers) than previously known. Understanding this pattern could challenge some long-held beliefs about humpback migration and improve protection areas to help these baby whales. The findings are detailed in a study published May 20 in the journal Frontiers in Marine Science. 'Hundreds of humpback calves were born well outside the established breeding grounds,' said Tracey Rogers, a study co-author and marine ecologist at the University of New South Wales in Australia. '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.' In the Northern Hemisphere, humpback whales like those found on the east coast of the United States and Canada, typically migrate from colder feeding in the Northern Atlantic Ocean in the summer and south to the Caribbean for the winter to breed and calf. For Southern Hemisphere humpbacks like those off the coast of Eastern Australia, the directions are flipped because of the equator. They travel from their frigid feeding grounds in the Southern Ocean around Antarctica, north towards the Pacific Ocean in Australia to breed, calve, and care for their young. Finding this new baby whale hotspot arose due to study co-author and University of New South Wales Ph.D candidate Jane McPhee-Frew's extracurricular work as a marine guide. 'In July 2023, during a whale-watching tour, I encountered a mum and calf at the mouth of Newcastle Harbor—the busiest shipping port in Eastern Australia,' said McPhee-Frew. 'The calf was tiny, obviously brand new. What were they doing there? But none of my tourism colleagues seemed surprised.' This new sighting piqued researchers' interest and they began investigating the calving range for humpback whales located around Australia and New Zealand. They used data from citizen science observations, government surveys, and reported strandings. New Zealand's Department of Conservation Cook Strait Whale Project supplied data from migration surveys, and Australian state wildlife departments supplied information on strandings dating all the way back to 1991. The team found 209 records of newborn calves (including 11 births), 41 strandings, and 168 observations of live calves, representing at least 169 individual whales. They also had data on the direction of travel for 118 whales, which showed the whales were continuing to migrate north after delivery. 'Humpback whale populations undertake extensive long-distance migrations from the Southern Ocean to breeding grounds in the tropics,' said study co-author Adelaide Dedden of the National Parks and Wildlife Service, Australia. 'They rely heavily on body reserves from an enormous amount of Antarctic krill to support the physiological costs of the journey and reproduction.' The highest-latitude calf was found at Port Arthur, Tasmania–about 932 miles further south than it was believed that humpbacks could calf. When they compared these observations taken over the last decade with historical texts and whaling logbooks, they say that calves born during migration were observed more often before the population crashed due to hunting. Humpback whale numbers in Australia crashed during the peak of the whaling industry, particularly during the 1960s and 1970s. 'I think it's very likely that this pattern has always existed, but the low number of whales obscured it from view,' said McPhee-Frew. 'The Eastern Australia humpback population narrowly escaped extinction, but now there are 30, 40, or 50,000 in this population alone. It doesn't happen overnight, but the recovery of humpback whales, and the return of their full range of behaviors and distribution, just goes to show that with good policies built on good science we can have excellent outcomes.' For all migratory species, these epic journeys cost a great deal of time and energy. The energy expenditures can leave their young vulnerable to predators. While this particular study can't answer why humpback whales risk migrating if they can give birth further south, it's possible that other factors are driving migration. The benefits of delivering in tropical waters might outweigh the risks of having a potential calf born along the way. While the data provided by Western Australia's Department of Biodiversity, Conservation, and Attractions pinpointed a possible nursery area in Flinders Bay, it's likely that most calves are born much further north in the tropics. [ Related: Humpback whales use bubble-nets as 'tools.' ] According to the team, there are several conservation implications in these findings. Some of the observed calves were injured, so expanded protected areas, awareness campaigns about protective measures boaters and the general public can take, and more research into the habitats that humpbacks use while migrating are critical to safeguarding the calves. 'This study was based on opportunistic observations,' cautioned McPhee-Frew. 'This data is excellent for answering questions like, 'are there newborn whales here?' But we can't stretch the interpretations too far. It might appear that we see more calves the further north we go, or that we have seen more over time. But it could be that there are more people whale-watching in the north, or more cameras and social media sharing in recent years.' 'We can only document what we see,' added study co-author Vanessa Pirotta of Macquarie University in Australia. 'Perhaps there are things happening in our ocean that we are yet to find out.'
Yahoo
04-02-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Sunday Conversation: New WRBL General Manager Tracey Rogers talks about new role
COLUMBUS, Ga. () — Last month, veteran television executive Tracey Rogers was named the new general manager of WRBL in Columbus. A former Nexstar regional vice president, Rogers will oversee the company's stations in Columbus, Dothan, Ala. (WDHN), and Panama City, Fla. (WMBB). She sat down last week with WRBL's Chuck Williams for the Sunday Conversation. It was a wide-ranging discussion about her nearly three-decade career, much of it spent in television news and the direction the industry is moving. Part 1 Part 2 Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
