Blue whales are found back at South Georgia
A survey combining visual line transects with directional sonobuoy deployments records 58 blue whale sightings from 2,430 km of visual effort, with 23 individuals photo-identified. Between 1998 and 2018 more than 34,000 km of systematic effort had produced one sighting. Since 2018 both sightings and acoustic detections have increased. Fifty years after the whaling ended, the animals are using the ground again.
Observed — measured or witnessed, with the observation cited.
Subjects
- South Georgia · region · South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands (UK overseas territory)
- Antarctic Blue Whale (B. m. intermedia) · species · Southern Ocean and adjacent temperate South Atlantic, Indian and Pacific sectors · not located
- Photo-Identification Cataloguing · process · Applied wherever blue whales are surveyed · not located
- Passive Acoustic Monitoring Arrays · technology system · Global ocean basins · not located
Evidence
Verified — Every field is supported by a cited authoritative source.
South Georgia blue whales five decades after the end of whaling
Industrial whaling off South Georgia between 1904 and 1971 killed 42,698 blue whales there; more than 34,000 km of systematic survey between 1998 and 2018 produced only a single blue whale sighting; a 2020 survey using visual line transects and DIFAR sonobuoys produced 58 blue whale sightings from 2,430 km of visual effort with 23 individuals photo-identified, and 41 individuals were photo-identified from South Georgia in total between 2011 and 2020. V55 verification basis: these figures were returned in the search result carrying the journal abstract and attributed to this paper.
Endangered Species Research (Inter-Research); Calderan, Black, Branch, Collins, Kelly, Leaper and colleagues · 2020-11 · Verified
Endangered Species Research 43, 359-373; https://www.int-res.com/abstracts/esr/v43/p359-373/
Recorded on South Georgia
- Whaling begins at Grytviken, South Georgia
- 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
- The commercial whaling moratorium takes effect
- The 52 Hz call is identified in Navy hydrophone data
- The SOSUS mission is declassified
- Dedicated Antarctic Blue Whale Project voyages
- Blue whales are found back at South Georgia
- The only published Antarctic blue whale satellite tracks are released as data
- A capture-recapture abundance estimate for Antarctic blue whales is published
- An individual Antarctic blue whale is re-sighted at South Georgia
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
- The only published Antarctic blue whale satellite tracks are released as data · 2023
- Dedicated Antarctic Blue Whale Project voyages · 2013, 2015, 2019
- The SOSUS mission is declassified · 1991
- The 52 Hz call is identified in Navy hydrophone data · 1989
- The commercial whaling moratorium takes effect · 1986 (coastal); 1985/86 pelagic season
- The IWC protects blue whales from commercial hunting · 1966