What is the average population of whales in the Antarctic waters?
(Dana Dowell) Answered by Dr. Dave Johnston of Duke University. A: Hi Dana, that is a good question, and one that our group – and many other researchers – are trying to answer with trips like this one. In our case, we are studying primarily humpback whales and counting them from the ship as move from place to place here in the Western Antarctic Peninsula. From the preliminary analysis so far, it seems like the density of humpbacks in our study area is really high. Overall, the average density of whales in our area is just under five whales per square mile. However, we’ve been to one bay – Wilhelmina Bay – that has over 13 humpback whales per square mile in it! However, we have a lot more work to do to figure out how many humpbacks there are across all of Antarctica. Q: What is the cause of the humpback whale being endangered? Is it the killer whale or fishermen? (Marcus Alford) Answered by Andy Read of Duke University. A: Humpbacks, like many of the great whales, are not endangered due
