The only published Antarctic blue whale satellite tracks are released as data
Data from two Antarctic blue whales tagged in the east Antarctic sector of the Southern Ocean is published as a dataset - described at the time as the first and only satellite tracks in existence for the subspecies. One animal covered a minimum of 1,390 km southeast over 13 days. Two tracks is the entire direct telemetric record for the largest animal that has ever lived, in the ocean where most of them were killed.
Observed — measured or witnessed, with the observation cited.
Subjects
- Antarctic Blue Whale (B. m. intermedia) · species · Southern Ocean and adjacent temperate South Atlantic, Indian and Pacific sectors · not located
- Satellite Telemetry Tagging of Large Whales · technology · Deployed on multiple blue whale populations · not located
- Antarctic Summer Feeding Migration · route · Southern Ocean and the temperate southern oceans · not located
- Southern Ocean · maritime region · Circumpolar, south of roughly 40°S · not located
Evidence
Partly verified — Core facts are sourced; some optional detail is deliberately absent.
Satellite tag derived data from two Antarctic blue whales (Balaenoptera musculus intermedia) tagged in the east Antarctic sector of the Southern Ocean
Two Antarctic blue whales tagged in the east Antarctic sector during an austral summer produced what the paper describes as the first and only satellite tracks in existence for the subspecies; one animal (PTT 121205) covered a minimum of 1,390 km southeast over 13 days. V55 verification basis: retrieved in search summary attributed to this data paper; the paper was not fetched, and the deployment year of the tags was not captured.
Biodiversity Data Journal (Pensoft) · 2023 · Partly verified
https://bdj.pensoft.net/article/94228/ ; https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC9836528/
Recorded on Antarctic Blue Whale (B. m. intermedia)
- Whaling begins at Grytviken, South Georgia
- The factory ship Lancing takes a stern slipway south
- The Antarctic blue whale catch reaches its all-time peak
- The heaviest blue whale on record is weighed
- Soviet fleets take protected whales and file false returns
- Whaling ends at South Georgia
- The IWC protects blue whales from commercial hunting
- CCAMLR is agreed at Canberra
- The commercial whaling moratorium takes effect
- Satellite tagging of eastern North Pacific blue whales begins
- The Southern Ocean Whale Sanctuary is adopted
- Tagged whales confirm the Gulf of California as a wintering ground
- A long-term decline in krill density is linked to winter sea ice
- Dedicated Antarctic Blue Whale Project voyages
- Pygmy blue whale movements between Australia and Indonesia are published
- CCAMLR adopts the Ross Sea marine protected area
- Blue whales are found back at South Georgia
- Baleen whale consumption is re-measured, and the krill paradox sharpens
- The only published Antarctic blue whale satellite tracks are released as data
- Antarctic sea ice reaches a record low, a year after the previous one
Related
Related because they share a subject in the Atlas — never because the text looks similar.
- An individual Antarctic blue whale is re-sighted at South Georgia · 2026
- A capture-recapture abundance estimate for Antarctic blue whales is published · 2025
- A physics-based early warning signal is proposed · 2024-02
- Antarctic sea ice reaches a record low, a year after the previous one · 2023-02
- Antarctic meltwater is projected to slow the abyssal cell · 2023
- Baleen whale consumption is re-measured, and the krill paradox sharpens · 2021-11
- Blue whales are found back at South Georgia · 2020-02
- CCAMLR adopts the Ross Sea marine protected area · 2016-10