A warming ocean threatens the survival of the Southern Right Whale

Embargoed until: Publicly released: 2021-10-16 05:00

International

Photo by Todd Cravens on Unsplash

Increasing El Niño events, where ocean surface temperatures warm to above-average temperatures, could threaten the recovery of the Southern Right Whale population, according to international research. The team used data dating back to the 1970s to model the impact of El Niño events on whales, and found a higher death rate for the whales after El Niño. The researchers say increasing ocean warming events could not only threaten the whales, but cause additional climate threats as whales play an important role in ocean ecosystems and storing carbon from the atmosphere throughout their lives.

Journal/
conference: Science Advances

Research:Paper

Organisation/s: Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina, Brazil

Funder: This work was supported by CAPES doctoral scholarship (M.A.), CAPES-PRINT grant 88887.370641/2019-00 (M.A.), CNPQ research grant 305573/2013-6 (P.C.S.-L.), and CNPQ research grant 407190/2012-0 (F.G.D.-J.). Funding for aerial surveys since 1971 was provided by numerous donors through Ocean Alliance and Instituto de Conservación de Ballenas such as Wildlife Conservation Society, National Geographic Society, World Wildlife Fund, Alfredo Fortabat Foundation, Turner Foundation, Canadian Whale Institute, I. Kerr, A. L. de Fortabat, S. Haney, A. and J. Moss, A. Morse, P. Singh, P. Logan, N. Griffis, and C. Walcott. Extended acknowledgments can be found in the Supplementary Materials.

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