|
|
Tweet |
Saving Right Whales? There’s an app for that.
A new app relies on whale calls to help mariners avoid hitting endangered right whales.
It isn't easy being a right whale, and hasn't been for several centuries. They are so named because they were the 'right' whales to hunt: they swim slowly and close to shore, obligingly float at the surface when harpooned, and contain large amounts of oil. Consequently, they were relentlessly targeted by commercial whalers, as a result of which (unsurprisingly) their numbers plunged. Although populations are rebounding in the Southern Hemisphere, they remain perilously low in both the North Pacific and North Atlantic (although here, too, there may be some slow recovery).