A recent study reveals that the population of North Pacific humpback whales in Alaska has decreased by 20% between 2012 and 2021. Researchers believe that the whales starved to death during a marine heatwave caused by climate change.
Wildlife biologist Janet Neilson has been keeping a close eye on Alaskan humpbacks for nearly three decades. For the National Parks Serviceshe keeps an count of the whales that migrate up from Hawaii to feed in Glacier Bay and Icy Strait every summer.“Young whales, calves went missing. We had whales in the prime years of their lives go missing. And we certainly had some older whales go missing as well,” Neilson said. “But it really seemed like it hit all the whales.
”which finds that almost 7,000 North Pacific humpbacks went missing between 2012 and 2021 — a 20% drop-off from the peak population of more than 33,000. Researchers believe they starved to death during the record-setting marine heatwave knowna photo database that uses artificial intelligence to quickly identify individual whales by the unique black-and-white patterns on the underside of their tail fins, or flukes. With Happy Whale, Cheeseman set out to do a simple population count. “But when we first saw these numbers, it turned a population study into a climate study,” Cheeseman sai
Alaskan Humpback Whales Population Decline Climate Change Marine Heatwave Wildlife Biologist
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