Australian scientists have been recording the songs of blue whales in the Southern Ocean for nearly two decades, and analysis of the audio suggests great news for the population of the world's largest animal.
Speaking to the Guardian, Australian Antarctic Division senior research scientist Brian Miller said whale numbers are on the rise or at least stable, marking a welcome resurgence after the creatures were brought to near extinction by hundreds of years of industrial whaling.
"We can tell you where they're frequenting, we can tell you that we're hearing them more often," Miller told the outlet. "So that's progress … Either they're either increasing in number or we're increasing in our ability to find them, and both of those things are good news."
After such promising findings, other marine scientists from all over the globe are looking to track whales in a similar fashion, hopefully painting an even better picture of population numbers and geographic distribution.
"Only an international collaborative effort is going to be able to piece together the puzzle of where they are and whether they're recovering," Miller added.
In addition to being a remarkable creature that should be protected, blue whales are hugely important to marine ecosystems.
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The International Fund for Animal Welfare describes them as "ecosystem engineers," as they control the population of krill, which keeps the food chain in balance and helps to ensure the stability of the food supply network.
Furthermore, the World Wildlife Fund observes that their iron-rich feces act as a fertilizer to support phytoplankton, which generate half of the Earth's oxygen and absorb 40% of the planet's carbon dioxide. Also, when blue whales die, their huge carcasses absorb carbon equivalent to thousands of trees.
In addition to keeping the oceans healthy, these creatures also help humans by reducing heat-trapping pollution and contributing to a cooler future.
Blue whales still face challenges, though. Rising ocean temperatures, plastic pollution, and entanglement in discarded fishing equipment can all put the animals in danger.
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We all need to play our part to ensure the continued good health of blue whales, whether that's reducing our daily production of planet-warming pollution, avoiding single-use plastics, or campaigning for more diligence from the fishing industry.
The recovery of this incredible species is fantastic news, and the whales seem to be singing about their improved prospects.
"We think the message is: 'I'm a blue whale, I'm here,'" Miller observed. "If you think about … us almost wiping them out, and extinction, then it becomes more poignant to think about them saying, 'I'm still here, here I am.'"
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