The biologist Dr. Helena Herr from Universität Hamburg has been researching whales in the Antarctic for 13 years. Now, together with her team, she has been able to prove for the first time that the number of fin whales there is increasing again after the 1976 hunting ban. During two expeditions in 2018 and 2019, the research team documented larger groups of feeding fin whales for the first time. During drone and helicopter flights and observations from the ship, the researchers documented dozens of gatherings of feeding fin whales, with two sightings there were up to 150 animals. BBC wildlife filmmakers involved in the expeditions filmed the spectacle. You can find short videos of the gathering of fin whales feeding here. This project is funded by the DFG Priority Program 1158 Antarctic Research.
Publication: Herr, H., Viquerat, S., Devas, F. et al. Return of large fin whale feeding aggregations to historical whaling grounds in the Southern Ocean. Scientific Reports12, 9458 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-022-13798-7
