A single blue whale named Isabela may have help marine biologists solve one of the tumid doubtfulness in animal migration : Where do South Pacific blue whale give birth ?
One might expect that as thelargest metal money in Earth ’s history , blue whale ( Balaenoptera musculus ) would be wanton to tell apart , but it is a big ocean out there . While dingy whale are thought togive birth in tropical waterslike their humpback relation , ratification has been knockout to amount by . Even the recognition of their feeding and potential fostering grounds off southerly Chileonly happened in 2004 , despite this plausibly being the largest population center to the south of the equator .
The reply , at least in Isabela ’s pillowcase , resonate for those who screw evolutionary chronicle . She migrated from the blue whale alimentation solid ground of the Corcovado Gulf in southern Chile to the amnionic fluid aroundthe Galapagos , where Darwin ’s theories first stirred .
At 5,000 kilometers ( 3,100 miles ) , the migration is well light of that achieved bysome giant species , but the long immortalise for a Southern Hemisphere dismal hulk .
" Efforts to protect blue giant and other sea - going species will always fall scant without full noesis of a mintage ' migratory range , ” said Juan Pablo Torres - Florez , lead source ofthe paper inMarine Mammal Sciencethat documents the epic voyage . " Moreover , with this variety of finding we encourage eastern south Pacific governments to retrieve about the world of a marine protected area internet for the conservation of this and other migratory species . ”
Torres - Florez , of the Universidad Austral de Chile , collaborated with research worker from NOAA and the Wildlife Conservation Society . " The movement of this one whale allow important info that will enable us to look further at these crucial area for blue hulk with goal to ensure their long - terminal figure protection,”saidDr . Howard Rosenbaum of the WCS’sOcean Giants Program .
The discovery was made not by confiscate a tracking equipment to Isabela , but from freestanding team compile peel sample distribution from whale in different parts of the cosmos . When the data point was shared , the teams study whales in Corcovado and those working off the Galapagos earn they had essay the same whale , a finis confirmed through photograph of Isabela ’s distinctive dorsal V and back pattern .
Since the two sample were take eight years apart , the source do not know when Isabela made the journeying , and whether it was a one - off event or part of a even cycle .
Little is known about Isabela ’s age or breeding history , but she is 25 cadence ( 82 feet ) long and probably weigh close to 100 tonnes , although no one has been game to ask her to try out some scales .
