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https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2022/jan/17/glorious-fin-whales-extinction-hope-antarctic-peninsular>
"Good news doesn’t get any more in-your-face than this. One thousand fin
whales, one of the world’s biggest animals, were seen last week swimming in the
same seas in which they were driven to near-extinction last century due to
whaling. It’s like humans never happened.
This vast assembly was spread over a five-mile-wide area between the South
Orkney islands and the Antarctic Peninsula. A single whale is stupendous;
imagine 1,000 of them, their misty forest of spouts, as tall as pine trees, the
plosive sound of their blows, their hot breath condensing in the icy air. Their
sharp dorsal fins and steel-grey bodies slide through the waves like a whale
ballet, choreographed at the extreme south of our planet.
The sight has left whale scientists slack-jawed and frankly green-eyed in envy
of Conor Ryan, who observed it from the polar cruiser, National Geographic
Endurance. Messaging from the ship on a tricky connection, Ryan, an experienced
zoologist and photographer, says this may be “one of the largest aggregations
of fin whales ever documented”. His estimate of 1,000 animals is a conservative
one, he says."
Via Glyn Moody, who wrote "staggering and glorious; now imagine this was the
norm, as it once was before human ruined everything…"
Share and enjoy,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
