2023

Year-round presence on Northern and Southern Hemisphere blue whales (Balaenoptera musculus) at the Galapagos Archipelago

Abstract Information about blue whales (Balaenoptera musculus) in the Eastern Tropical Pacific is scarce with only few whales sighted within the last decades. Molecular, photo ID and acoustic studies suggest a connectivity of Chilean and Antarctic blue whales to potential breeding areas off the coast of Peru and in the Galapagos, whereas blue whales of the Costa Rica Dome relate...

→ Read More

Wild pedigrees inform mutation rates and historic abundance in baleen whales

Abstract: Phylogeny-based suggesting a low germline mutation rate (m) in baleen influened research ranging from assessments of whaling impacts to evolutionary cancer biology. We estimated m directly from pedigrees in four baleen whale species for both the mitochondrial control region and nuclear genome. The results suggest values higher than those obtained through phylogeny-based estimates and similar to pedigree-based values of...

→ Read More

A fluke encounter: first record of the blue whale (Balaenoptera musculus) within the central North Sea, United Kingdom

Abstract Despite holding the accoladeas the largest animal ever to live on the planet earth and ubiquitously inhabiting the world's major oceans, an acute paucity of information surronds the geographical distribution and migration phenology of the endangered blue whale (Baleanoptera musculus) in the northeast Atlantic. Current migration and distribution information derived from robust scientific studies is required to ensure the...

→ Read More