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https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2025/may/08/astonishing-journeys-online-tool-tracking-migratory-animals-highlights-challenge-of-protecting-them>
"Off the east coast of Florida, female loggerhead turtles swim more than
1,000km north, hugging the edge of the continental shelf to get to feeding
grounds.
Humpback whales move through Moreton Bay off the Brisbane coast in Australia,
on their way to feed around the Balleny Islands more than 4,000km away off the
Antarctic coastline, where wandering albatross circle above, travelling 1,000km
a day.
In the Netherlands, Arctic terns set off from breeding colonies on one of the
bird kingdom’s longest migrations – a 90,000km round trip, to east Antarctica
and back again.
It is hard for plodding, land-bound
Homo sapiens to fathom the distances
covered by these species, or their total disregard for the perils of the high
seas, or the country boundaries humans have drawn.
But all these journeys, and many hundreds more, have been brought together for
the first time in a new online tool that reveals the movements of more than 100
species that migrate across the planet’s oceans.
“They’re absolutely astonishing journeys and they’re far more common than we
give them credit for. All sorts of species do this,” says Daniel Dunn, an
associate professor and director of the University of Queensland’s Centre for
Biodiversity and Conservation Science.
“Some of these birds spend less energy flying than they do standing on the
ground. They can sleep while they’re flying, somehow putting half their brain
to sleep while the other half is paying attention.”
Almost half of all species that migrate over or in the ocean are feared to be
in decline – and they are presenting conservationists with a unique and
confounding challenge. How can a country help save a species that spends its
time feeding or breeding in one place, if that same species is put under threat
when it leaves?"
Cheers,
*** 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
