Scientists have found Australian humpback whales were less stressed during the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic.Scientists say humans need to find ways to reduce their impact on these migrating cetaceans.
The research, published today, found similar results to a study by Boston scientists from the New England Aquarium shortly after the September 11 terrorist attacks on the World Trade Centre. Dr Linsky said this could be due to several reasons, such as the large amounts of underwater noise usually generated by commercial ships.
"On the migratory path they're using sound to communicate over great distances, and anything that's going to attenuate their ability to communicate is going to have an impact on the population."Additionally, Dr Linsky said analysis of gene expression suggested the whales could have been eating fewer polychlorinated biphenyls and other man-made pollutants during the pandemic.
Dr Linsky said the health of these migratory whales was a good barometer of the health of the Antarctic marine ecosystem as a whole.
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