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Giant blue-grey Sei whales that vanished from Argentina’s Patagonian coast a century ago due to hunting are now starting to flourish once again, with the species recovering following measures to protect them being put in place.
In the 1920s and 1930s regular whaling ships along the shores of Argentina – and beyond – saw populations dwindle. But in the last 50 years global bans on commercial whaling have helped populations of Sei and others revive.
“They disappeared because they were hunted, they did not become extinct but were so reduced that no one saw them,” said Mariano Coscarella, biologist and researcher in marine ecosystems at the Argentine state science body CONICET, who leads the research project, Proyecto Sei, with biologist Marina Riera and the Punta Marques Protected Natural Area.
Mr Coscarella added that it had taken decades for numbers to recover enough that the whales had again been sighted, which only started in recent years.
The team last month worked to fit satellite trackers on some Sei whales to map their migration patterns, with funding from National Geographic’s Pristine Seas project.
“We can consider this a success of conservation on a global scale,” Mr Coscarella said, adding that the global moratorium on whaling was key to numbers improving and warned that countries pulling out of this agreement would jeopardise the recovery.
The Japanese government announced yesterday that it would add large fin whales to its list of commercial whaling species, which includes Sei Whales, five years after leaving the International Whaling Commission (IWC), an international body that regulates the commercial hunt of marine mammals.
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