www射-国产免费一级-欧美福利-亚洲成人福利-成人一区在线观看-亚州成人

WORLD> Global General
Blue whales return to Alaskan waters
(China Daily)
Updated: 2009-05-19 10:05

ANCHORAGE, Alaska: Blue whales are returning to Alaska in search of food and could be re-establishing an old migration route several decades after they were nearly wiped out by commercial whalers, scientists say.

Blue whales return to Alaskan waters
This undated photo provided by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration shows a blue whale spouting off Moresby Island, British Columbia, Canada. Scientists say the whales that use to cruise the Pacific Ocean from California to Alaska until commercial whalers nearly wiped them out, could be re-establishing an old migration route from California to Alaska. [Agencies]
 Blue whales return to Alaskan waters

The endangered whales, possibly the largest animals ever to live on Earth, have yet to recover from the worldwide slaughter that eliminated 99 percent of their number, according to the American Cetacean Society. The hunting peaked in 1931 with more than 29,000 animals killed in one season.

The animals used to cruise from Mexico and Southern California to Alaska, but they had mostly vanished from Alaskan waters.

But several sightings of California whales in recent years off the coasts of Alaska and British Columbia suggest that the massive animals are expanding north again in search of tiny shrimp-like krill to eat, scientists contend in a recent article published in the journal Marine Mammal Science.

Researchers got an inkling of the trend in 2004 during a humpback whale survey in the Gulf of Alaska, said Jay Barlow, a scientist with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). Three blue whales were spotted in the Gulf of Alaska.

"No one had seen blue whales in these waters since the end of whaling," Barlow said.

Researchers compared photographs of the six whales with those in a photo identification catalog dating back to the mid-1980s. One of the Gulf of Alaska whales matched a California whale. That whale had been seen five times in 1995 and 1998 near the Santa Barbara Channel off southern California.

After the 2004 sightings, John Calambokidis, a research biologist at Cascadia Research Collective in Olympia, Washington, who works with NOAA, said one or two blue whales were spotted each year off British Columbia in 2005 and 2006.

In 2007, researchers spotted five in one day near the Queen Charlotte Islands off British Columbia. Three more were spotted the next day.

Calambokidis, who compiled the blue whale photo identification catalog, said before that there had been only a couple of blue whale sightings in that area in the past 50 years.

Researchers eventually documented 15 blue whales off the coast of British Columbia and in the Gulf of Alaska that they believe are part of the California group of about 2,000 animals. Four were matched with photos in the catalog.

"We speculate that this represents the re-establishment of a traditional migration pattern for an eastern North Pacific blue whale population," the scientists say in the journal article written by Calambokidis, Barlow and others.

AP

主站蜘蛛池模板: 久久久久久91 | 亚洲成人天堂 | 欧美日韩一区二区三区在线视频 | 国产一区亚洲二区三区 | 亚洲欧美综合一区二区三区四区 | 国产精品天天爽夜夜欢张柏芝 | 伊人资源 | 国产亚洲精品一品区99热 | 国产人做人爱视频精品 | 暖暖免费高清日本一区二区三区 | 国产超清在线观看 | 欧美大片欧美毛片大片 | 在线网站黄色 | 久久91精品国产99久久yfo | 看一级毛片一区二区三区免费 | 久久久亚洲天堂 | 91无套极品外围在线播放 | 国产一区二区三区久久精品小说 | 国产日本欧美高清免费区 | 成人免费毛片视频 | 高清国产美女一级a毛片录 高清国产亚洲va精品 | 国产精品免费一区二区区 | 欧美成年| 国产美女操 | 拍拍拍又黄又爽无挡视频免费 | 国产欧美成人免费观看 | 亚洲自偷自拍另类12p | 亚洲黄色三级网站 | 在线观看国产一区二区三区 | 国产精品99久久99久久久看片 | 国产成人精品日本亚洲专一区 | 黄色视品 | 特黄aaaaaa久久片 | 精品国产香蕉在线播出 | 欧美综合亚洲 | 久草免费资源 | 精品久久久久久久久久中文字幕 | 在线成人精品国产区免费 | 国厂自拍 | 99福利资源久久福利资源 | 国产高清在线视频 |