Blue whales are the largest animals on Earth and are found throughout the world in all oceans. Their songs are on
Salvatore Cerchio, Director of the Study ProgramAfrican Water Conservation Foundation cetaceans analyzed recordings of whale sounds at three locations in the western Indian Ocean. Cherkio has also worked with a group of scientists collecting acoustic recordings off the coast of Oman in the Arabian Sea. This is part of a research effort to study the critically endangered humpback whale of the Arabian Sea.
By analyzing additional acoustic data,scientists recognized the same unusual song. And it became clear to the researchers that they had discovered a previously unrecognized population of blue whales in the western Indian Ocean.
Photo: Robert Baldwin / Environmental Society of Oman
During the 20th century, blue whale populations throughoutthe world dropped to a critical level. In the past few decades, they have begun to recover very slowly from a global moratorium on commercial whaling. The Arabian Sea became the target of illegal whaling in the 1960s, which almost completely eradicated small populations of humpback whales, blue whales, sperm whales and Bride's whales.
Some researchers believe that blue whalesthe northern Indian Ocean and the humpback whales of the Arabian Sea constitute unique subspecies, not just populations, which makes them special and important for biodiversity.
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