Once hunted to the brink of extinction, fin whales in the Southern Ocean have rebounded, according to a new survey. This was discovered by a group of researchers, who were six weeks into a nine week expedition near the coast of Elephant Island in the Antarctic Peninsula. They stumbled on the largest gathering of fin whales ever documented. The researchers were thrilled at this most spectacular site. Large numbers of fin whales had returned to the waters that once made up their historic feeding grounds. This is a glimmer of good news in what is otherwise a worrisome landscape for global biodiversity.
Humans are speeding the extinction at an unprecedented pace, according to the assessment of the U.N. It is predicted that the continued greenhouse gas emission could trigger a mass die-off of marine species by 2300. The rebounding of the fin whales population, however, offers a sign that if you enforce management and conservation, there are chances for species to recover.
Recent research has proposed that the rebound in whale population s is good not only for the whales by for the entire ecosystem, through a concept known as whale pump. Whales feed on krill, they excrete iron, which was locked in the crustaceans, back into the water. That, in turn, can boos phytoplakton, microscopic organisms that use carbon dioxide in photosynthesis, and serve as the base of the marine food chain. Great news for the species and marine life in general.
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