Ukrainian icebreaker recorded singing of rare whales
18.04.2024 - 11:51
It was possible to record the sounds of rare Antarctic whales from aboard the research vessel “Noosfera”.
Ukrainian polar explorers recorded the “singing” of one of the least researched species of whales in the world – southern fin whales. This was reported in the press service of the National Academy of Sciences.
Ukrainian scientists have established that there is a great diversity of marine mammals in the Antarctic Strait of Gerlash. In particular, meetings with southern swimmers are most often recorded there. That is why this area was chosen for research with the participation of the icebreaker “Noosfera”.
Visual observations and acoustic trawling, i.e. recording of cetacean sounds, were carried out from the side of the Ukrainian vessel. The search for animals was also carried out from a motor boat. He helped survey the bays that were difficult for a large ship to reach.
On the very first day of work, the boat crew noticed a group of 5 southern swimmers. Biologists managed to take photos of the whales and relayed information about the direction of their movement to the “Noosfera” crew. Thanks to this, it was possible to record the sounds of mammals from the ship.
As a result of several sessions of the recorder, the biologists received more than 14 hours of acoustic recordings. A preliminary assessment of some of them showed the presence of sounds not only of fins, but also of killer whales and humpback whales. But there is still a thorough analysis ahead, which can reveal the sounds of other marine mammals, noted the NASC.
As USM wrote, the day before the Noosphere icebreaker made a flight from the Akademik Vernadskyi station to Chile. The height of the waves in the Drake Passage reached 10 meters.
