The slow but steady comeback of the blue whale - the biggest creature to have lived on Earth that was driven nearly to extinction by commercial whalers - is continuing, the latest whale research cruise has confirmed.
The research was conducted by a four-strong team of cetacean (whales and dolphins) scientists for the International Whaling Commission (IWC), working from the Japanese research ship Shonan Maru No 2 that arrived back in Cape Town harbour last week after a two-month cruise deep into the Antarctic waters.
The vessel left Cape Town on December 22 and sailed in a research area between longitudes 000 and 020 East.
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It was the latest research cruise in a 28-year study of whale populations in the Southern Ocean, directed by the IWC's scientific committee.
"The research programme is unanimously supported by the 66 member nations of the IWC, including South Africa," said scientific committee member Peter Best, who works at Pretoria University's Mammal Research Institute.
He explained that the research did not involve the killing or capture of any whales and was conducted completely independently of Japan's controversial whaling in Antarctica.
The worst experience the whales in this research programme suffer is a tiny pin-prick when the scientists take small biopsy samples of their skin for genetic testing.
This used to be done using a crossbow, but the scientists now use specially adapted rifles, Best explained.
"These rifles tend to have a longer range and a flatter trajectory, and enable sampling of the more evasive species such as blue and fin whales."
During the cruise, the team of scientists, led by New Zealander Paul Ensor, counted 63 blue whales, 295 fin whales, 532 humpbacks, 971 minkes, 75 killer whales (orcas), 37 sperm whales, 24 southern bottlenose whales, and three southern rights.
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