Aussie Marine Researchers Sift Through Historic Photos To Safeguard Whales' Future

SYDNEY, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 14th Jun, 2022 ) :Researchers in Western Australia (WA) have embarked on what they describe as an "immense detective effort" to identify individual whales from thousands of historical photographs with the long-term aim of helping protect vital breeding regions for the endangered marine mammals.

Marine biologists and ecologists from Edith Cowan University (ECU) and Western Whale Research are working their way through the numerous archived images of southern right whales taken by scientists and volunteers dating back about 30 years.

The photos were taken shortly after the end of an era when the whales, which gained their unusual name because they were deemed the "right" kind of whale to hunt being slow-moving and floating after being harpooned, were pushed to the brink of extinction having long been slaughtered for their oil, blubber and cartilage.

Left alone, the gentle and playful creatures can live for up to 80 years which means that some photographed long ago could still be taking part in the annual migration along the WA coastline; the researchers can distinguish individual members of the whale pods from the distinctive white markings on the animals' massive heads.