On World Whale Day, which is celebrated this February 19, the Center for Advanced Studies in Arid Zones (CEAZA) highlighted the work of a scientific research team that follows four fin whales via satellite to protect the areas that are vital for their conservation.
What are the routes of whales off the coast of Chile? What time of year do they move? Do large vessels interfere with the whales’ path? They are part of the questions that a group of scientists has asked themselves, and that has prompted them to monitor these giants of the sea.
This is a joint effort of the COPAS Coastal center (UDEC), Centro Ballena Azul, CEAZA, Universidad de Valparaíso, Centro Eutropia, Instituto Aqualie and the Universidad Austral de Chile, which consists of monitoring four fin whales, the second whale largest in the world and the most common in the Humboldt archipelago (Atacama and Coquimbo regions).
This enclave attracts tourists to admire its monumentality, as well as being a natural laboratory for scientists who are studying its behavior with the aim of conserving this key species for the health of the ocean.
Susannah Buchan, COPAS Coastal – CEAZA researcher details that “the fin whale was the most hunted species of baleen whale in Chile, today it is listed in danger of extinction by the Ministry of the Environment, and is under threat from collisions with large vessels, entanglements and other impacts of human activities. Understanding the movements of the fin whale and how it relates to its environment and human activities is essential to develop conservation and protection strategies for this emblematic species of central-northern Chile.”
In real time
The current scientific campaign included the “tagging” or attachment of small monitoring instruments to four fin whales between January 15 and 24, 2023 in front of Chañaral de Aceituno cove. This is in addition to 10 more whales that were instrumented in 2015 and 2023 in the same place. In addition, skin biopsies were extracted to determine the sex of the individuals and photographs of their dorsal fins for individualization.
Scientists comment that the four whales are already transmitting their first data moving through the waters of the Humboldt Archipelago and the coasts surrounding the Llanos de Challe National Park. Previous markings provided data for up to six months in some cases, so if everything goes as expected, they would obtain a lot of information to learn more about the trajectory of this species.
Carlos Olavarría, executive director of CEAZA and researcher of the study, highlights that “satellite tracking information has provided the first clues about the movements of fin whales during the summer, autumn and spring off the coast of Chile. The resolution provided allows evaluating the critical areas for this species, where the Humboldt Archipelago stands out. However, other areas are identified in the north and center of the country. This information will be key to the effective management and protection of this species and its critical habitats.”
Luis Bedriñana-Romano, COPAS researcher – Centro Ballena Azul adds that “the data on the movements of fin whales instrumented in the Humboldt archipelago will be added to data from oceanographic cruises and passive acoustic monitoring collected on the Chilean coast, which will be integrated to understand more about the distribution patterns of the fin whale in the Humboldt Current and therefore guide future conservation efforts.”
“In this context, some specific elements that will be evaluated will be the overlap of the whale concentration areas with fishing activities and maritime traffic which mean potential risks of entanglement and collision respectively,” he says.
Another aspect that scientists want to investigate is to know how whales respond to the El Niño event, which is currently underway. To do this, they will study current data with those collected during La Niña periods.
The field research -financed by COPAS Coastal through a HIT project, led by Luis Bedriñana-Romano, and the Eutropia Center- also had the participation of scientists: Rodrigo Hucke-Gaete (Universidad Austral de Chile, Ballena Azul Center ), Macarena Santos (Centro Eutropia) and Carlos Olavarria (CEAZA).
Whale Day
Every February 19, 2023, World Whale Day is celebrated. This commemoration began in Maui, Hawaii in 1980 to celebrate the humpback whales that come annually to breed and breed on those tropical islands, and was proposed by Greg Kauffman, founder of the Pacific Whale Foundation. Over time it has spread around the world and celebrates all species of whales on the planet.