Living Planet | 15.08.2008 | 00:30
On a Whalewatching Boat With Researchers in Alaska
The latest study on the situation of whales, dolphins and porpoises around the globe shows that species have experienced mixed fortunes: The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species update finds that some large species, like humpbacks, have increased in number. Populations of smaller species, such as river dolphins, however, have been declining.
Bildunterschrift: Großansicht des Bildes mit der Bildunterschrift: Whales are social animals
The conservation union IUCN is convinced their findings show that efforts to protect animals pay off and that species can recover. But they’ve only been able to assess half of the world’s cetaceans because of a lack of data.
Collecting data for cetaceans is indeed very difficult: They live far offshore, and some of them are found in remote parts of the world. In Alaska, researchers have been studying whales off the coast since the 1970s. This summer, one main focus of research was on orcas, or killer whales. In the Northwestern portion of the Gulf of Alaska, a whalewatching tour boat recently reported sighting a pod of killer whales. But what researchers found wasn’t just a pod… it was a superpod!
Report: Emily Schwing
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