Southern right whale superpod blows a hole in the record books

Southern right whale superpod blows a hole in the record books

6 years ago
Anonymous $oIHRkISgaL

https://phys.org/news/2018-10-southern-whale-superpod-hole.html

The survey team recorded every whale and dolphin species encountered, but focused specifically on southern right whales, counting every individual along the stretch of coastline from Nature's Valley to Muizenberg. Photographs were taken of every female accompanied by a calf (each whale can be identified by the unique pattern of callouses on its head). Over the coming months, these images will be analysed with the aid of a computer-assisted image recognition system and cross-referenced with the Whale Unit's existing catalogue of southern right whales, which comprises visual data on over 2,000 recognisable adults recorded during the previous 38 surveys.

                
            
        
        
    
    Whale eye. Credit: Mammal Research Institute Whale Unit, University of Pretoria
Is this a fluke?