Wednesday, May 10, 2006

BLUE WHALE NURSERY IN CORCOVADO STRAIT




In 2003 BBC News informed a chilean researchers team of Austral University directed by Dr. Rodrigo Gaete discovered a whale nursery of blue whales in the nearby of Corcovado Strait at Pacific Ocean southern Chile in way to Antartic.This is the most important blue whale feeding and nursery grounds yet discovered in the southern Hemisphere.Scientific have little evidenxce of where blue whales bredd,although is it tought to take place in tropical waters.But this findings appear contradict traditional theories about the seasonal migration of blue whales.Southern Hemisphere blue whales generally leave their Antartic feeding gounds in the onset of Autumn.They arrive in the tropics at the onset of winter,in order to give birth and breed.When spring arrives,they begin to migrate back to the Antartic Ocean.However the blue whales where clearly spending summer near the tropics.
Two posibility exist,one a a separate sub especies of pygmy blue whale other thar migration habits of blue whale are changing.
In the near future the area was declarated a protected area and a national marine park by the National Forest Corporation and the Environmental chilean Agency.

More information;Ballena Azul and International Whale Comission
Image:IWC

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