Satellites used to track whales in Arctic
Photo courtesy of NOAA
Scientists have begun outfitting beluga whales with satellite transmitters.
They’re hoping to gather a base of information about where the whales migrate and how they interact with other populations. It’s part of what’s called the Pan–Arctic Tagging Project, and it’s associated with International Polar Year – or IPY – a global effort that began in March of 2007.
Rod Hobbs: We can study individual groups of beluga whales, but you get a different picture when you try to look at all the populations in the Arctic at the same time, to see how they interact with the conditions they have now, and how they will change as conditions change.
That’s Rod Hobbs, Beluga Project Manager for the National Marine Mammal Laboratory. He told Earth & Sky that he’s already seen belugas react to changes in climate. For example, the timing of ice melting and re–freezing affects their migration patterns. In some cases, belugas haven’t shown up where research teams were waiting to tag them.
Beluga whales have adapted to ice ages and warm spells in the past. But can they adapt to the current very rapid climate change? Hobbs and other scientists are trying to establish a baseline that will let us track the whales’ progress.
Our thanks today to NOAA, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
Pan Arctic Tracking of Beluga Whales
Our thanks to:
Rod Hobbs
Beluga Whale Project Manager
National Marine Mammal Labratory
NOAA
Seattle, Washington
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did any one get the whales consent before satellite tracking was started? are belugas considered potential terroist vehicles and covered und the ‘patriot act’?
Has Hobbs or anyone else publish anything in any peer reviewed journal,that states unequivocally that if beluga whales don’t show up where researchers think they will, it is caused by climate change? If not then why does Hobbs make such a claim?
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