Major change off Aussie coast linked to 'worrying' event thousands of kilometres away
While smaller fluctuations in their departure are normal, researchers from the University of Queensland have observed a 'clear and sustained change' since 2021 and published their findings in the journal Scientific Reports. Lead author, Associate Professor Rebecca Dunlop, believes there is likely a connection to warming waters around Antarctica, as it causes:
A depletion of sea ice
Which leads to a reduction in algae
And this means less food for krill
As a result, krill numbers drop, and there's less food for humpbacks
'Post 2020, there has been a significant decline in sea ice, and it's during that period that they changed their migration,' Dunlop told Yahoo News Australia.
"It seems they're returning to those feeding grounds earlier.'
Why whales must accumulate huge amounts of blubber
To carry out their 10,000km migration, humpbacks need to build up an enormous amount of blubber.
Females face an even bigger challenge because they're normally pregnant as they travel to their winter breeding grounds, and then have to give birth and produce milk to sustain the calf.
During their time in the tropical north, they generally don't eat except for during the odd temporary stopover, adding pressure on them to return home to Antarctica as their energy runs out.
'If they've got less energy... then obviously that's going to change how they behave and how they migrate,' Dunlop said.
If the oceans keep warming and the sea ice keeps declining, then that has massive impacts, not just for whales, but for everything else that lives down there.Associate Professor Rebecca Dunlop
Two separate events could increase pressure on food resources
East Antarctic whale numbers plummeted to around 300 individuals in the 1960s, primarily due to hunting by the Soviets. After whaling was banned a decade later, numbers rebounded and in 2025 they're estimated to be close to 40,000.
🥺 Emotional decision looms as ancient site faces extreme storm
📚 Backlash over radical climate change plan for Aussie schools
🪱 Aussies warned as brain worm spike detected following extreme weather event
Today, the population is thought to exceed pre-hunting numbers, which were thought to be roughly 30,000. There are concerns that vanishing krill combined with increasing humpback numbers could create a 'perfect storm' of pressure on their food resources.
'You've got this train crash happening where you've got more whales trying to feed on less krill,' Dunlop said.
'We have no idea what the carrying capacity is in the Antarctic, because we don't know what the krill density is. We don't know if the numbers have overshot, or what's going to happen in the future. Numbers might start to decline, or they might absolutely crash.'
Love Australia's weird and wonderful environment? 🐊🦘😳 Get our new newsletter showcasing the week's best stories.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Bloomberg
2 hours ago
- Bloomberg
How Climate Change Is Raising Your Grocery Bill
A 300% spike in Australian lettuce prices. A 50% rise for European olive oil and 80% for US vegetables. Researchers from the Barcelona Supercomputing Center and the European Central Bank have traced back those price jumps to extreme weather they say is linked to climate change. The group analyzed 16 weather events around the world between 2022 and 2024. Many were so unusual that a given region had experienced nothing like it prior to 2020, according to the analysis, which was published in the peer-reviewed journal Environmental Research Letters on Monday in Europe.
Forbes
2 hours ago
- Forbes
NASA-Funded Greenland Survey Reveals ‘Crazy' Amounts Of Ocean Warming
Pieces of ice in front of glacier, barren mountains, Knud Rasmussen Glacier, in far northwest ... More Greenland. Preliminary data from a NASA-funded Greenland survey point to a two-degree centigrade rise in regional ocean water temperatures in less than a decade. For the first time ever, a team of researchers took the data from a subglacial Greenland channel in February of this year using a custom-built, remotely operated vehicle equipped with sonar, laser-ranging and a mass spectrometer. Preliminarily, what we've been able to show is, at least during this year, ocean water in this region is almost two degrees warmer than it was less than 10 years ago, Britney Schmidt, a Cornell University astrobiologist and the ongoing Icefin project's principal investigator, tells me in Reykjavik. It's crazy amounts of warming; we're losing this ice very rapidly and it's much warmer than I would have expected; two degrees in 10 years is insane, she says. The ROV allows us to find channels that are bringing water out from underneath the ice sheet which has huge climate implications, Schmidt tells me during the recent European Astrobiology Institute's BEACON 25 conference in Iceland. But it also has astrobiological implications, because you're bringing samples from under the ice sheet that we otherwise can't get to, she says. This ROV exploration is also trailblazing the way for NASA's potential subsurface lander missions to the icy moons of Europa and Enceladus. At the same time, this research is providing the most current data on climate change in our Northern hemisphere. One of these glaciers has been moving back at about a kilometer a year; others are moving faster, but this system is quite unstable, so we're rapidly losing ice, says Schmidt. NASA-funded and partly funded by the private Simons Foundation, one aim of the research is to simulate the types of exploration, decision making, and analyses that might be required for a mission one of our solar system's icy moons. Cornell University astrobiologist Britney Schmidt gives her presentation at the recent European ... More Astrobiology Insitute's BEACON 25 conference in Iceland. Schmidt is pictured here with an image of Icefin, a underwater robotic operated vehicle (ROV). Retreating Glaciers Working from temporary headquarters atop Greenland's ice cap, the team made its measurements earlier this year by deploying the ROV into subsurface channels and steering the ROV upstream underneath the ice sheet. The team worked near or on three glaciers, including the Knud Rasmussen Glacier on Greenland's Northwestern Coast We're able to resolve exactly how the ocean is getting into these channels and how much fresh water is affecting the base of the ice, says Schmidt. That allows us to put much tighter constraints on how melting is happening, she says. Ice Melt Even so, Greenland has been rapidly losing ice for the last 100 years due to direct human-caused effects in the Northern hemisphere. Three glaciers are calving (or losing) ice directly into the ocean. In the cold part of the season, the team can drive out on snowmobiles to these environments, Schmidt explains in her BEACON 25 talk. The team first drills a hole in the sea ice, then we deploy the vehicle vertically through the ice, then drive it under the ice horizontally, as Schmidt explains in her talk. Future Icy Moon Exploration The ways in which we're exploring beneath the ice are analogous to the types of things we'd need to develop to explore Jupiter and Saturn's icy moons, says Schmidt. You'd melt through the ice shell to be able to pull water samples and decide which samples are interesting and then pass the most interesting ones through to in-situ life detection instrumentation, she says. At the same time, this work is helping the team develop new sample handling systems that oceanographers and climatologists can use on Earth. Mass spectrometers pull in samples of material and analyze their chemistry. in this case, it's what's called a membrane inlet (semi-permeable) mass spectrometer, says Schmidt. It's pulling dissolved gases out of the water and analyzing their composition, she says. That allows us to do is to understand what's going on underneath the ice and measure just how much melting is happening underneath the glaciers, she notes. This basic research will also help further NASA's laundry list of tech development needed to manage eventual subsurface sampling of Europa and Enceladus. How would a subsurface rover on the icy moons of Europa or Enceladus communicate back to Earth? It would probably need a tether or a set of acoustic transponders that can transit through the ice to allow it to radio back to the surface and then radio out back to Earth, says Schmidt. But it's possible, she says. But before such ambitious space missions to Europa or Enceladus, there's practical work to do here on Earth. One involves enabling AI for the Icefin ROV so that it can make at least some of its own exploration decisions in situ. We have a long way to go on under-ice robotic autonomy, both from just how to keep vehicles safe to how to understand the environment, says Schmidt. That's kind of a frontier, not just for space exploration, but also for Earth exploration, she says.
Yahoo
12 hours ago
- Yahoo
Scientists make key breakthrough that could save staple foods from worsening crisis: 'This will revolutionize the way we think about agriculture'
Scientists make key breakthrough that could save staple foods from worsening crisis: 'This will revolutionize the way we think about agriculture' An international team led by researchers from Monash University in Australia has developed a new model for thermosensing plants that redefines previously held theories about how plants sense and respond to temperature. Their findings, published in the journal Science, explain that instead of using a single "thermometer" to sense temperature, like humans do, plants have a decentralized genetic network of proteins and biological processes. A changing climate has already affected crop yields and plant health, which makes this shift in perspective about how plants deal with temperature shifts extremely useful. "Understanding how plants naturally integrate temperature into their growth and defence systems opens the door to precision breeding and AI-assisted approaches to enhance crop resilience," said lead researcher Professor Sureshkumar Balasubramanian. "Effectively, this means we can grow designer crops that are tailored to the local climate of a particular region." A United Nations report has warned that in the next 30 years, food supplies and food security could be threatened by the negative impacts of a warming planet. Action needs to be taken to mitigate the effects and bolster the food system's resilience. There have been various advancements in helping plants deal with these climate shifts, including using zinc to protect plants from heat and slowing down the plant aging process through genetic engineering. Around a decade's worth of research into farming practices has shown that reduced tilling and more varied crops can help soil retain more nitrogen, which is essential to growth. Sorghum, which is a naturally resistant cereal grain, is being studied to better understand its molecular structure, which could help improve breeding practices for other plants. The results of this new comprehensive review about how plants sense temperatures can offer solutions to a broad range of plant species across different regions. This could help farmers breed resilient crops specifically tailored to their locality. What is the biggest reason you don't grow food at home? Not enough time Not enough space It seems too hard I have a garden already Click your choice to see results and speak your mind. "Now that we have been able to identify exactly which elements within the plants are temperature-responsive, we can genetically manipulate them with greater accuracy," said Dr Sridevi Sureshkumar. "We can determine the specific combinations of manipulations that can produce bespoke solutions. Think of it like personalised medicine but for plants; this will revolutionize the way we think about agriculture moving forward." Join our free newsletter for weekly updates on the latest innovations improving our lives and shaping our future, and don't miss this cool list of easy ways to help yourself while helping the planet. Solve the daily Crossword
