National Trust lecture: Saving Sri Lanka’s blue whales
View(s):Sri Lankan blue whales are a unique, non-migrating, endangered subspecies. They breed six months out of phase with other pygmy blue whales in the Southern Hemisphere, display different behaviours, are half a metre shorter and have a unique vocal call. Most unusually, this population does not migrate to Polar Regions, but remains in warm tropical waters year-round.
Their confinement within the Northern Indian Ocean makes this population increasingly vulnerable to human activities mainly in near shore areas.
In particular, their high use areas overlap with one of the world’s busiest shipping lanes, and whale deaths due to ship-strikes are well-documented and likely to increase. As such, ship-strike is considered the most important threat to this population. Other stressors such as entanglement and by catch are also important as they can result in death.
‘Saving the blue whales of Sri Lanka to save our oceans’, a talk by Dr. Asha de Vos on Thursday, January 28 at 6.30 p.m. at the HNB auditorium, will highlight her efforts to pioneer research on the blue whales in the Northern Indian Ocean, establish the first ever long-term research project on the species, and conduct groundbreaking research in an effort to inform conservation and drive policy change.
The core of her research over the last few years has focused on resolving the problem of ship-strike through a collaboration she created with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) in the US. During this talk Asha will also highlight the other threats that the population of blue whales face in Sri Lankan waters and explain why their continued existence is intrinsically linked with our own.