Protecting Blue Corridors project
by Daria Blackwell 25 Feb 2022 14:28 GMT
Fin whale mid-Atlantic © Daria Blackwell
The WWF is calling on the world's governments to extend legal protections for marine wildlife such that they overlap the "blue corridors" or "whale superhighways".
The 2022 report from the charity's Protecting Blue Corridors project presents a visualisation of the satellite tracks of 845 migratory whales around the globe and "outlines how whales are encountering multiple and growing threats in their critical ocean habitats".
The report is a collaborative analysis of 30 years of scientific data contributed by more than 50 research groups, with leading marine scientists from Oregon State University, the University of California Santa Cruz, the University of Southampton and others.
WWF notes that the long-distance migrations of whales are under considerable threat from human activity, whether that be climate change, ghost nets, noise and plastic pollution, offshore mineral exploration, shipping or whaling.
Protecting Blue Corridors: Challenges and solutions for migratory whales navigating national and international seas was published ahead of World Whale Day on 20 February 2022. The report shows the migratory pathways followed by different whale species.
Download the report here.
This article has been provided by the courtesy of Ocean Cruising Club.