Latest news with #humpbackwhales
The Independent
3 days ago
- Science
- The Independent
Sightings soar on Australia's ‘humpback highway' as 40,000 whales return for winter
Thousands of humpback whales have begun their migration from Antarctica to Australia, with a pod appearing in the Sydney harbour on Monday and momentarily halting ferry services. A group of three to four whales surfaced near Manly Wharf on Monday afternoon, causing the Freshwater ferry service to pause for about five minutes, according to Transport for NSW. The sighting follows several other appearances in the harbour over the weekend and comes during the annual migration of humpback whales. The migration sees up to 40,000 humpback whales journeying from the cold feeding grounds of Antarctica to the warmer waters off Queensland and Western Australia to breed and give birth. The northward migration, often referred to as the "humpback highway," covers almost 10,000km and is one of the longest migrations of any mammal. The migrating whales tend to swim closer to the shore, making them more visible to onlookers. 'Anywhere you can see the ocean, you have a chance of spotting a whale,' Dr Vanessa Pirotta, a marine scientist, told The Guardian, adding that peak migration season was 'pretty much like whale peak hour' along Australia's east coast. Researchers are now seeing changes in the humpback migration pattern, however. A recent study, published in Frontiers in Marine Science, notes humpback calves being born much further south than expected, including off the Tasmania coast and New Zealand 's South Island, which are not traditionally considered calving grounds. They say the shift may be linked to the waters getting warmer due to rising ocean temperatures. Although the humpbacks continue to recover from near-extinction due to commercial whaling, with latest estimates of their population ranging from 30,000 to 50,000, conservationists say the species remains vulnerable to human impact, especially during the migration season. Entanglement in fishing gear is one of the biggest threats. In an effort to reduce such risks, OceanWatch Australia and similar groups are running initiatives like the East Coast Whale Entanglement Mitigation Programme, which is trialling modified gear designs. The humpback migration typically peaks in June and July but is expected to continue through to October, with the whales returning south with newborn calves. Scientists say this year's observations will be key to understanding how these iconic mammals are adapting to a warming ocean.
ABC News
3 days ago
- General
- ABC News
Winter is here, which means whales are back
Each winter, thousands of humpback whales migrate from Antarctic feeding grounds to tropical breeding areas along Australia's east and west coasts.
The Guardian
3 days ago
- Science
- The Guardian
Winter brings Australia's ‘humpback highway' to life and peak hour is about to begin
Every winter, Australia's 'humpback highway' hums to life. Thousands of humpback whales migrate from Antarctic feeding grounds to tropical breeding areas along Australia's east and west coasts. Dr Vanessa Pirotta, a Sydney-based whale scientist, said that peak 'blubber to blubber' traffic on the highway occurs between mid-June and early July. That is when crowds will flock to greater Sydney's headlands and beaches, hoping to glimpse the balletic performers as they defy their immense size. Lucky spotters can watch whales, weighing up to 40 tonnes, breach and crash back into the Pacific Ocean, flanked by bursts of sea spray. 'You don't need a boat to see a whale,' Pirotta said. 'I would encourage Sydneysiders to look out on their weekend or morning walk because we have such a fabulous coastline. 'Anywhere you can see the ocean, you have a chance of spotting a whale.' Once hunted to near extinction, the humpback whales – Megaptera novaeangliae – have made a remarkable recovery. Population estimates now range between 30,000 and 50,000. Sign up for Guardian Australia's breaking news email But as numbers grow, migration patterns are shifting. 'Some are hanging out here all year round, at least in those colder southern waters like Tasmania,' Pirotta said. Global heating, shifting food sources and warming oceans are likely factors – with implications for future marine life. No longer listed as a threatened species, humpbacks still face risks in increasingly industrialised seas. Entanglement in commercial fishing gear, shark nets and drum lines, vessel strikes and acoustic pollution from seismic blasting are all potentially deadly hazards. Last year, it took rescuers almost five hours to free a young humpback whale in Sydney Harbour after it became entangled in ropes and buoys. 'When you're a migrating animal the size of a bus, there are a number of challenges that whales face that we as humans present,' Pirotta said. The growing humpback population means conservation efforts 'need to be bumped up', she said. Melting Antarctic ice is also threatening krill – a key food source for the whales, which are so important to supporting ocean health. 'Their poo drives nutrients and helps the food chain, which we rely on, especially our fisheries industry,' Pirotta said. Pirotta works with the Gamay Rangers, who care for country around Gamay (Botany Bay). 'Indigenous knowledge holders reflect the past of our First Nations scientists, our first whale scientists,' she said. For many saltwater people of the east and west coasts, whales are sacred and hold a significant cultural and spiritual place. Yuin man Dr Jack Pascoe, an ecologist at the University of Melbourne, said the whales – Gurawal – hold lore in the form of stories. Pascoe helped establish the Saltwater People's Alliance, which advocates for the preservation of whale song lines. He said Australian environmental laws are 'flawed and not fit for purpose'. Stronger action on climate and more Indigenous-led conservation strategies that recognise species of cultural significance were needed, he said. Simon Miller, from the Australian Marine Conservation Society, has said the 'pressing international threat' of climate change is affecting whale migration and marine ecosystems. 'Australia needs to be a leading global citizen and do our bit … keeping global warming to 1.5 degrees,' Miller said. Like Pascoe, he has urged state and federal governments to develop stronger environmental policies. According to the CSIRO, sea surface temperatures in Australia have risen by 1.08C since 1900, with the greatest warming off the south-east and Tasmania.
CBC
24-05-2025
- CBC
N.L. using artificial intelligence to track and tell stories of humpback whales
Newfoundland and Labrador's tourism department is having a whale of a time using artificial intelligence to help visitors learn more about the province's humpback whale population. Hello Humpback is a new website allowing users to upload their whale watching photos in order to help track humpback whales off the coast of Newfoundland. Artificial intelligence then compiles that information into a story. Darrell Smith, director of marketing for the Department of Tourism, Culture, Arts and Recreation, says no two whale tails are the same. "Whether it's the markings on the tail or the ridges and whatnot, every tail is kind of like a human fingerprint. So of course, every one of those is unique," Smith told CBC Radio's Newfoundland Morning. Once a photo is uploaded, Smith says Hello Humpback will search through a database from Happy Whale, a group that has tracked humpback whale migration for years, which users can then search through. "This is all done using image recognition software," Smith said. "Then it'll show you the whale that you have seen yourself and will say, 'OK, this guy's been in the Dominican Republic and was recently seen off North Point.'" It then uses AI to generate a story, details on sea conditions, and a specific gender for each whale according to the data Happy Whale has tracked. When users upload their pictures of whales, Hello Humpback's website says they are contributing to citizen science. "The AI model was actually built in our brand tone," Smith said. "Even though Happy Whale tracks the whales all around the world, this gives it a real unique Newfoundland and Labrador approach." Smith says they didn't hire local writers because AI can generate a whale's story much faster. "If somebody is out on the boat or on a hiking trail taking a picture, they can upload it and that [story] comes back at you right away," he said. According to Hello Humpback's website, Newfoundland and Labrador hosts the world's largest population of humpbacks every year and currently lists the story of some whales like Ryan and Michael, both last spotted in Newfoundland waters in 2022.
New York Times
20-05-2025
- Science
- New York Times
Humpback Whales May Not See Their Most Dangerous Threats
Run-ins with humans are the leading cause of death for humpback whales — and new research may explain why these gentle giants are so vulnerable to collisions with boats and entanglement in fishing nets. The softball-size eyes of humpbacks offer shockingly poor vision, according to a study published Wednesday in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B. Unfortunately, this isn't the kind of vision issue that can be corrected with a prescription (as much as we'd all like to see a whale in glasses). Simulations indicate whales see most of their surroundings in shadowy silhouettes and struggle to resolve fine-scale details until they're extremely close, said Jacob Bolin, who conducted the study while completing his marine biology degree at the University of North Carolina Wilmington. That means the spidery lines of fishing nets may be virtually invisible to humpbacks until it's too late to avoid them. Better understanding how humpbacks and other whales see could inspire 'strategies for making fishing gear more visible' and help the whales avoid deadly encounters with humans, said Lorian Schweikert, a sensory biologist also at the University of North Carolina-Wilmington and an author of the paper. To understand humpback vision, Mr. Bolin and his team dissected the eye of a juvenile humpback whale that died on a North Carolina beach in 2011. While most whales that wash ashore have been dead for weeks and are badly decomposed, this individual was euthanized on land. That afforded scientists an opportunity to study humpback anatomy. Having such large eyes should, based on optical principles, be an asset: the longer the focal distance, or the length between the lens and the retina, the sharper the image, Mr. Bolin explained. But the researchers found that more than a third of the eye's depth was taken up by meaty sclera, the white of the eye that's not involved in vision. But the greatest limiting factor for the whale's vision is the low density of retinal ganglion cells, which Mr. Bolin compared to 'the pixels of the eye.' The cells capture the image reflected on the retina and convert it into electrical signals the brain can understand. Denser retinal ganglia mean a higher-resolution picture arrives to the brain. The highest density Mr. Bolin tallied in the whale's eye was about 180 retinal ganglia per square millimeter. Humans can have about 35 to 40,000 per square millimeter, while keen-eyed birds of prey can have up to 70,000 in the same area. To see how these anatomical features work together, the researchers used software to simulate how underwater scenes might look to humpbacks, which scientists already knew see only in black and white. They modeled two images that are important to whales navigating the modern seas — a school of small fish, and a commercial fishing net — at various distances. The results suggest a significant drop-off in perception of objects at a distance of around 150 feet to 200 feet — not so far considering adult humpbacks are about 45 feet long. While the school of fish was reduced to a hazy blob, the gillnet became almost invisible. It's not just that humpbacks will struggle to identify a more distant object — they might not even realize it's there, Dr. Schweikert said. These findings crystallize just how poor the humpback's vision is, said Dr. Elena Vecino Cordero, an ophthalmologist at the University of the Basque Country in Spain who has studied whale eyes and wasn't involved in the study. In fact, Mr. Bolin's estimates of whale vision might even be too rosy, Dr. Vecino said — her analysis of three other baleen whale species found even lower densities of retinal ganglia. Dr. Vecino and Mr. Bolin agree that the North Carolina whale's eyeball might have shrunk slightly in the 12 years it spent preserved in a jar before Mr. Bolin dissected it, which would have led him to overestimate their sight. But how do humpbacks get along with such poor vision? Frankly, before the seas were filled with human infrastructure like boats and nets, they never needed it, Dr. Schweikert said. Adult humpback whales don't really have predators to look out for, and researchers believe they rely on other senses, including smell, to detect their prey. Unlike their cousins the toothed whales, humpbacks can't echolocate. 'Our justifiable fascination for whale song and sonar has left us with few clear answers on what those huge eyes are for,' said Sönke Johnsen, a biology professor at Duke University and an author of the study.
