150 Whales Observed Feeding Together

The expedition investigated e.g. the effects of climate change on the Antarctic krill, which forms the basis of the Antarctic food web; growing up to six centimetres long. The tiny bioluminescent crustaceans are a prime food source for fish, penguins, seals and whales. During the expedition, a team led by the study’s first author Dr Helena Herr from Universität Hamburg and a camera team from the BBC jointly used the Polarstern’s onboard helicopter for survey flights, counting and filming the whale stocks. On 22 flights, the team covered a total of 3251 kilometres and counted 100 groups of fin whales, consisting of one to four whales each. In addition, the whale research team kept watch on deck – and spotted a group of ca. 50 southern fin whales near Elephant Island in the Weddell Sea off the Antarctic Peninsula, and later more than 70 in the same spot. “I ran straight to our monitor, which uses acoustic measuring methods to show the presence and size of krill swarms in the water,” recalls Bettina Meyer. “And based on the data, we were able to identify the swarms and even see how the whales hunted them.”

The International Commission for the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources (CCAMLR) aims to establish a network of Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) in the Southern Ocean. The European Union (EU) first submitted an application for an MPA in the Weddell Sea, the Atlantic sector of the Southern Ocean, under CCAMLR in 2016. The scientific data for this proposal were compiled and evaluated by experts from the Alfred Wegener Institute. The application for Weddell Sea MPA application as a refuge for cold-loving species is supported by many states, but has not yet been approved by CCAMLR.