A Whale Task Of Note

The Age

Tuesday January 3, 2006

STEVE CAUCHI

AUSTRALIAN researchers launched one of their largest expeditions yesterday, sailing for the Antarctic to record for the first time the sounds of minke whales.

The Aurora Australis left Fremantle on a 10-week trek that will cover more than 1 million square kilometres of Southern Ocean and include a rarely visited stretch of Australian Antarctic Territory coast.

The expedition will survey minke and krill populations and study ocean currents and marine microbes.

Voyage leader Steve Nichol, from the Federal Government's Australian Antarctic Division, said past surveys of minke populations had been unreliable. The expedition would listen for whale sounds to complement sightings.

"It's the first time it's ever been tried," Dr Nichol said. "There's a lot of doubt about how well people have surveyed whales in the past and doing the two (methods) together, we'll be seeing whether they match in any way."

The oceanographic survey will estimate the flow of water through the region. Dr Nichol said the area had been rarely visited in the past 10 to 15 years.

"During that time there's been a lot of changes in the water properties around Antarctica which people think are related to climate change," he said.

Marine microbes would be studied because they played a part in the ability of the Southern Ocean to absorb greenhouse gases and sustain life.

The krill survey was important because of the high demand for krill fishing. The last krill survey in the region was 25 years ago, Dr Nichol said. -- STEVE CAUCHI

© 2006 The Age

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